Smallest.ai raises $13 million for ultra-fast voice AI

Smallest.ai, a startup founded in late 2024, has raised $13 million in a Series A round led by Seligman Ventures to develop ultra-fast, human-like voice AI. The company's technology uses small, specialized models to eliminate conversational lag, unlike traditional LLMs. With total funding now over $21 million, Smallest.ai aims to "break the Turing test" for enterprise customers like RingCentral and Truecaller.

Series A funding round

• ▪Sierra Ventures and 3one4 Capital also participated in the Series A funding round for Smallest.ai
• ▪The new capital brings Smallest.ai's total funding to over $21 million
• ▪Smallest.ai raised $13 million in a Series A funding round led by Seligman Ventures

Small voice model technology

• ▪The company's technology focuses on voice-specific nuances like handling diverse accents, supporting dozens of languages, and operating in noisy environments
• ▪The stated goal for Smallest.ai's models is to "break the Turing test."
• ▪Smallest.ai is developing a small voice model designed to mimic human conversation by listening, thinking, and speaking simultaneously
• ▪Founded in late 2024, Smallest.ai aims to make speaking to an AI agent indistinguishable from talking to a human

Real-time conversation approach

• ▪If a query is outside the small model's knowledge, Smallest.ai hands off the query to a large foundational model
• ▪Smallest.ai's model serves as a real-time intelligence layer that enables natural customer conversations with virtually zero response lag
• ▪Unlike Smallest.ai's model, large language models (LLMs) create unnatural pauses in voice conversations due to processing latency

Enterprise customer base

• ▪Smallest.ai focuses exclusively on providing real-time conversational voice agents to its enterprise customers
• ▪Existing customers of Smallest.ai include voice technology companies RingCentral and Truecaller
• ▪CEO Sudarshan Kamath argues that for customer support startups, building specialized voice models is a distraction from their core business

Voice AI competitive landscape

• ▪Smallest.ai competes with voice AI leader ElevenLabs, as well as Cartesia and regional players like Sarvam
• ▪While some competitors apply voice AI to audio dubbing and podcasting, Smallest.ai focuses strictly on real-time conversational agents