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Deepgram, a real-time API platform powering the fast-growing Voice AI economy, has achieved unicorn status following a $130 million Series C funding round that values the company at $1.3 billion. The milestone underscores rising investor confidence in voice-based artificial intelligence as a core infrastructure layer for enterprise technology.
The funding round was led by AVP, an independent global investment platform focused on scaling high-growth technology companies across Europe and North America. All major existing investors participated, including Alkeon, In-Q-Tel, Madrona, Tiger, Wing, Y Combinator, and funds managed by BlackRock. New investors such as Alumni Ventures and Princeville Capital also joined, alongside strategic backers including Twilio, ServiceNow Ventures, SAP, and Citi Ventures.
Academic institutions further strengthened the round, with the University of Michigan and Columbia Universityinvesting alongside existing academic partners such as Stanford University. The broad mix of financial, strategic, and institutional investors reflects Deepgram’s growing relevance across enterprise technology, communications, and AI-driven compliance and analytics use cases.
With the new capital, Deepgram is positioned to accelerate development of real-time Voice AI models capable of supporting billions of live conversations with human-level accuracy, low latency, and natural interaction. AVP was selected as lead investor due to its experience scaling category-defining companies globally and its ability to support Deepgram’s international expansion, including deeper penetration into European and other strategic markets.
Drawing parallels with earlier platform breakthroughs, Elizabeth de Saint-Aignan, General Partner at AVP, described Deepgram as foundational infrastructure for a new economic layer.
“Much like Stripe delivered the API platform underpinning the payments economy, we believe Deepgram is positioned to deliver the API platform supporting the emerging trillion-dollar B2B Voice AI economy,” she said. “Its ability to deliver real-time, reliable, and massively scalable Voice AI infrastructure aligns perfectly with the rapid shift toward voice-first enterprise experiences.”
Deepgram’s leadership sees the funding as validation of a long-term vision centered on voice as a primary human–machine interface. Scott Stephenson, CEO and Co-Founder of Deepgram, said enterprises increasingly require real-time, fully duplex voice systems capable of contextual interaction at scale.
“As we move toward a world where billions of simultaneous conversations are powered by Voice AI, developers and enterprises need infrastructure that is reliable, low-latency, and scalable,” Stephenson said. “From pioneering end-to-end deep learning for voice to earning multiple patents and committing to pass the Audio Turing Test at scale by 2026, we have remained focused on powering a future built around voice.”
He added that the participation of both new and existing investors highlights the emergence of the Voice AI economy and Deepgram’s central role in enabling it.
Powering the Voice AI Ecosystem
Today, more than 1,300 organizations build Voice AI capabilities using Deepgram’s APIs. The platform serves as a foundational infrastructure layer for real-time speech recognition, speech generation, analytics, orchestration, and fully autonomous voice agents. These capabilities are increasingly relevant for regulated industries that require accurate data capture, compliance analytics, auditability, and secure AI-driven customer engagement.
Industry partners see voice as a strategic channel for enterprise growth. Andy O’Dower, Vice President of Product Management for Voice and Video at Twilio, noted that combining Twilio’s global communications infrastructure with Deepgram’s speech recognition enables seamless, human-like AI interactions.
“Voice is a critical and data-rich engagement channel,” O’Dower said. “Twilio’s orchestration capabilities, combined with Deepgram-powered speech recognition, are delivering low-latency, natural Voice AI experiences that are driving today’s enterprise adoption.”
As Voice AI adoption accelerates, platforms like Deepgram are increasingly viewed as essential infrastructure—not only for innovation, but also for governance, risk management, data accuracy, and regulatory compliance in AI-driven enterprise systems.
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