Scaling Millions of Calls with Human-Like AI Vapi Bets Big on a Voice-First Future

Customer service has long been plagued by inefficiencies and frustrations, with legacy systems often compounding rather than alleviating the challenges faced by consumers. Automated call centers and interactive voice response (IVR) systems, while intended to streamline operations, frequently leave customers dissatisfied. However, as generative AI evolves, it offers a new avenue to address these issues. Enter Vapi, a San Francisco-based startup that believes it has cracked the code to seamless, human-like customer service interactions.

Founded in March by Jordan Dearsley and Nikhil Gupta, Vapi is today announcing a significant milestone: a $20 million Series A funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners. This funding, which also saw participation from Abstract Ventures, AI Grant, Y Combinator, Saga Ventures, and the celebrated businessman Michael Ovitz, brings the company’s total raised to $23 million and values the startup at approximately $130 million.

At its core, Vapi is building a developer platform that enables businesses to create custom voice agents designed to integrate seamlessly with their operations. Unlike the standard, often rigid voice assistants many companies deploy, Vapi’s platform allows for highly tailored solutions, reflecting the unique needs of individual enterprises.

“Often, people don’t even realize they’re talking to an AI agent when they interact with our technology,” says Dearsley. “And even if they do, they’re happy with the way that the agent resolves their query.”

The startup’s technology ensures that voice agents aren’t just conversationally fluent but also capable of aligning with existing customer relationship management (CRM) systems and operational tools. By enabling businesses to customize the agents to their workflows, Vapi empowers them to scale their voice operations efficiently. “Consumer-facing companies run on voice, so to scale their revenues, they need to scale their voice operations,” Dearsley emphasizes. “It’s really difficult to scale people, but with generative voice models, you can scale to millions of calls.”

Timing the Voice AI Boom

Dearsley believes that the timing for Vapi’s vision couldn’t be better. Tech giants like Apple and Google are poised to launch new voice-enabled services, potentially onboarding 4 billion users to advanced conversational AI. “Apple Intelligence and Google Gemini are about to normalize human-like interactions with voice assistants,” he explains. “This marks a new beginning for voice as the world’s default interface – consumers will want voice agents everywhere.”

As voice AI transitions from clunky and robotic to seamlessly human, Vapi is positioning itself as a leader in this emerging market.

Despite being a young company, Vapi’s platform is already finding traction. One of its notable adopters, Luma Health, which develops customer service platforms for healthcare providers, has successfully integrated Vapi’s technology. “We chose Vapi to power our Voice AI strategy because of its mature platform and outstanding capabilities,” says Marcelo Oliveira, senior vice president of engineering at Luma Health. “It enables seamless integration, helping us deliver solutions to our customers in record time.”

Meeting the Market’s Needs

Vapi’s vision goes beyond just customer service. The company foresees a world where:

• Small businesses never miss critical calls.
• Patients receive immediate, AI-driven care without long waits.
• Personal AI tutors are accessible anytime, anywhere, and in any language.

This ambition requires a robust platform that offers not just conversational fluency but also control and scalability. Vapi is designed to handle millions of concurrent conversations, ensuring no downtime while maintaining high accuracy.

The company’s approach is rooted in solving the most complex problems of building voice AI systems. Its deterministic conversation flows guarantee agent behavior aligns with business needs, minimizing risks like hallucinations.

Competing in a Crowded Field

While Vapi leads the charge, competitors like Bland AI and Retell AI are also innovating rapidly. Vapi’s $20 million funding round provides the financial firepower needed to maintain its competitive edge. Dearsley plans to use the funds to enhance the platform’s resilience and improve model determinism—ensuring the AI produces reliable and accurate responses at scale.

“Our goal is to take over the complex, unrewarding parts of the engineering problem so enterprises and developers can focus on what they do best,” Dearsley explains. “Think of us like AWS for cloud transitions or Twilio for SMS and phone calls. We’re not the flashy part, but we’re the engine powering the magic.”

For Vapi, voice is more than a tool; it’s the most natural form of human interaction. “For decades, we adapted to technology—typing, clicking, swiping. Now, technology is adapting back,” Dearsley says.

The company believes this shift represents a new chapter in human-machine interaction, where voice becomes the default interface. With over 100,000 developers building on its platform and millions of calls handled monthly, Vapi is paving the way for a voice-first future.

As Dearsley aptly puts it, “We’ve been constrained by technology for too long. Now it should bend to us.”