Slang AI Raises $36M for Voice Automation
Slang AI, a New York-based company providing AI-powered voice automation for hospitality businesses, raised $36M in a Series B round. The company's agentic platform automates customer calls, bookings, and support for businesses like restaurants and hotels. The funding round was also noted in a roundup of recent NYC tech financing.
- The $36M Series B funding round was led by US Venture Partners (USVP) and included participation from Thayer Investment Partners and former Stripe COO Claire Hughes Johnson. This brings Slang AI's total funding to $68M. - Slang AI was founded in 2019 by two former Spotify colleagues, Alex Sambvani (CEO) and Gabe Duncan (CTO). Sambvani's experience working with voice AI leaders at Spotify, combined with his passion for food and frustration with restaurant call experiences in New York, led to the creation of the company. - The company's AI is a custom-trained "Superhost" platform that goes beyond simple Q&A to handle complex interactions like booking reservations and recognizing VIPs. It's built on a proprietary dataset of over 25 million calls from 10 million unique guests, giving it a significant data advantage. - Slang AI's vertical SaaS approach focuses specifically on the hospitality industry, addressing the issue that restaurants can miss up to half of all inbound calls. The platform integrates with key restaurant systems like OpenTable, SevenRooms, Tripleseat, and Yelp. - The funding will be used to expand beyond voice into multi-modal experiences, covering more of the guest journey from personalized recommendations to post-visit follow-ups. The company also plans to expand its engineering, product, and go-to-market teams. - Clients using the platform have reportedly seen up to a 20x ROI, a 2x increase in phone reservations, and guest satisfaction rates of over 95%. - Prior to the Series B, Slang AI had raised $20 million in a Series A round led by Homebrew, with participation from celebrity chef Tom Colicchio and Behance founder Scott Belsky.
