The race to automate enterprise conversations just got a new unicorn.
Deepgram, the San Francisco-based voice AI infrastructure startup, has raised $130 million at a $1.3 billion valuation. The round was led by AVP, with participation from Citi Ventures and notably, the CIA’s venture arm, In-Q-Tel.
💰 THE FUNDING DEETS:
- Lead Investor: AVP.
- New Backers: Alumni Ventures, Princeville Capital, Citi Ventures.
- Returning: Tiger Global, Madrona, In-Q-Tel.
- Use of Funds: International expansion (Europe/APAC), “large compute purchases,” and M&A.
🤖 THE STRATEGIC SHIFT: CEO Scott Stephenson frames the moment perfectly: “Any place where there’s a text field or a button click, all of those products are working on adding voice.”
- The “Voice Agent” Boom: Deepgram isn’t just transcription anymore; it provides the infrastructure for real-time, contextual AI agents.
- The Clients: Powers over 1,300 orgs, including NASA, AWS, and next-gen customer service platforms like Decagon and Sierra.
🍔 M&A ACTION: Alongside the funding, Deepgram announced the acquisition of OfOne, a specialized voice AI platform for drive-thrus. This signals a direct push into the high-volume QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) vertical, where labor shortages are driving rapid automation adoption.
💡 ANALYST TAKEAWAY: Voice is crossing the chasm from “nice to have” (transcription) to “mission critical” (active agents). With backing from both the CIA (In-Q-Tel) and Wall Street (Citi), Deepgram is positioning itself as the trusted infrastructure layer for secure, low-latency voice interactions—competing directly against OpenAI’s Whisper but with a focus on enterprise-grade steerability.
👇 AI Developers: Is Voice finally ready to replace the keyboard for complex enterprise workflows, or is it still just for simple commands?