From MIT to disrupting Voice AI: Another powerful example of Indian subcontinent-origin founders building global tech with Indian engineering excellence.
What is the news?
- Phonic, founded by MIT grads Moin Nadeem and Nikhil Murthy, has raised $4 million in seed funding led by Lux Capital with participation from notable tech founders including Replit’s Amjad Masad, Hugging Face co-founder Clem Delangue, Applied Intuition’s Qasar Younis and Modal Labs founder Erik Bernhardsson.
- The startup is tackling Voice AI reliability by building an end-to-end voice stack that decreases latency while dramatically improving synthetic voice performance.
Why is it interesting?
- While most voice AI companies piece together disparate technologies, Phonic’s differentiated approach involves training models in-house end-to-end, enabling deeper integration of reliability features and cost-efficiency.
- The founders identified a critical market gap through customer conversations: reliable voice AI solutions at scale. Their approach of combining diffusion and proprietary models represents true innovation in a rapidly growing space.
- Currently working with insurance and healthcare partners, Phonic exemplifies the global-first mindset we value- MIT-trained Indian subcontinent-origin founders solving universal technical challenges with novel approaches.