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- Hyper raises $6.3M to automate 911 calls
Hyper raises $6.3M to automate 911 calls

🔊 Soundcheck
Hyper secures $6.3M to streamline 911 calls.
Meta acquires PlayAI to enhance voice AI capabilities.
Intrado's AI speeds up 911 responses.
SuperDial secures $15M to revolutionize healthcare calls.
Read time: 5 minutes
🔥 Hot Mic
Big moves, deep dives, and standout stories.
Hyper, an AI voice company, has emerged from stealth with a $6.3 million seed round led by Eniac Ventures. The startup aims to automate non-emergency 911 calls, allowing dispatchers to focus on urgent situations. CEO Ben Sanders, inspired by his background in tech and government, co-founded Hyper with Damian McCabe. Their AI system handles routine inquiries, forwards calls, and files non-emergency police reports, escalating to human operators when necessary. The funding will support Hyper's expansion across the U.S., integration with existing 911 systems, and hiring, including a head of engineering. The company differentiates itself by training models on real 911 calls and supporting over 30 languages. Hyper's AI is already operational in several centers, addressing the challenge of understaffed call centers and aiming to reduce dispatcher workload, ultimately improving emergency response times.
Key Points:
• Hyper secures $6.3M seed funding led by Eniac Ventures.
• AI system automates non-emergency 911 calls, aiding dispatchers.
• Supports over 30 languages, trained on real 911 call data.
• Operational in multiple centers, enhancing emergency response efficiency.
Takeaway:
Hyper's AI-driven approach to managing non-emergency 911 calls has the potential to significantly improve emergency response times by allowing dispatchers to concentrate on critical situations, addressing the pressing issue of understaffed call centers.
Meta has acquired PlayAI, a California-based startup specializing in AI-generated human-like voices. The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed. The entire PlayAI team, consisting of approximately 35 employees, will join Meta's AI division under the leadership of Johan Schalkwyk, a recent hire from Sesame AI. PlayAI's technology focuses on real-time speech synthesis, multilingual voice cloning, and programmable voice agents, which are expected to enhance Meta's AI Characters, wearable devices, and audio content creation tools. This acquisition aligns with Meta's broader strategy to advance its AI capabilities, following a recent $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI and aggressive recruitment from competitors like OpenAI and Apple.
Key Points:
• Meta acquires voice AI startup PlayAI.
• PlayAI team joins Meta's AI division.
• Technology to enhance Meta's AI products.
• Part of Meta's broader AI expansion strategy.
Takeaway:
Meta's acquisition of PlayAI underscores its commitment to advancing voice AI technologies, aiming to create more natural and immersive user experiences across its platforms.
Intrado has introduced AI-powered solutions to enhance 911 emergency response services. Their VIPER NextGen platform offers real-time voice-to-text transcription and translation, enabling faster and more accurate communication between callers and telecommunicators. The system supports over 40 languages, automatically detecting and translating non-English calls, which is crucial for diverse communities. This reduces the need for third-party translation services, saving valuable time during emergencies. Additional features include a user-friendly, map-centric interface that simplifies workflows and reduces response times. The platform also boasts enhanced cybersecurity measures and georedundant failover for increased reliability. These advancements aim to improve emergency response processes, ensuring that help reaches those in need more swiftly and efficiently.
Key Points:
• VIPER NextGen offers real-time transcription and translation.
• Supports over 40 languages with automatic detection.
• Features a map-centric interface for simplified workflows.
• Enhanced cybersecurity and georedundant failover included.
Takeaway:
Intrado's AI-driven VIPER NextGen platform significantly enhances 911 emergency response by providing real-time transcription and translation, supporting over 40 languages, and improving overall communication efficiency and reliability.
SuperDial, a San Francisco-based voice AI company, has secured $15 million in Series A funding to scale its platform that automates administrative phone calls between healthcare providers and insurers. The round was led by SignalFire, with participation from Slow Ventures, BoxGroup, and Scrub Capital, bringing the company's total funding to over $20 million. Founded in 2023 by Stanford alumni Sam Schwager and Harrison Caruthers, SuperDial's AI agents handle outbound calls for tasks like benefits verification, prior authorization, claims follow-up, and credentialing. The platform integrates with electronic health records (EHRs) to automate documentation, aiming to reduce operational costs and administrative backlogs. Customers have reported up to 3x cost savings per call and 4x productivity gains. For instance, West Coast Dental reduced a backlog of 70,000 claims and avoided hiring five additional staff by using SuperDial to manage over 10,000 claim status calls monthly. Earlier this year, SuperDial acquired MajorBoost, a voice AI company specializing in insurer workflows, to enhance its technical capabilities. The company plans to deepen EHR integrations, expand into new administrative workflows, and continue training its AI agents using real-world call data.
Key Points:
• SuperDial raises $15M in Series A funding led by SignalFire.
• AI agents automate healthcare administrative calls, reducing costs.
• Customers report up to 3x cost savings and 4x productivity gains.
• Acquired MajorBoost to enhance voice AI capabilities.
Takeaway:
SuperDial's $15 million funding underscores the growing role of AI in streamlining healthcare operations, offering significant cost savings and efficiency improvements for providers and billing companies.
🎙️ Mic Drop
What else is making noise in voice AI.
• Bloomz adds AI-powered translation and conversational features for multilingual school-home communication (eschoolnews.com)
• 3CLogic and ScreenMeet expand integration with ServiceNow to bring voice AI and video support tools (prnewswire.com)
• Krisp launches voice isolation SDK and hits 1 billion monthly Voice AI minutes processed (martechcube.com)
• NY court allows claims for unauthorized voice cloning rights (law.com)
• Voice deepfakes raise security concerns, spark call for new standards (itprotoday.com)
• Florida woman scammed using AI-cloned voice of crash victim (malwarebytes.com)
• Another AI voice scam attempt reported in Florida (wfla.com)
• Voice actors raise AI voice concerns at Comic-Con via NAVA (yahoo.com)
• Klaviyo launches AI chatbot for U.S. e-commerce platforms (ecommercenews.eu)
• Guide to installing Dia-1.6B open-source TTS model (vocal.media)
• SoundHound vs. Twilio: a comparison of voice tech strategies (tradingview.com)
• Conversive acquires VoxGenie for omnichannel voice AI CRM (startupnews.fyi)
• DerbySoft debuts voice automation for corporate travel supplier calls (travolution.com)
• Review of Plaud NotePin wearable AI voice recorder (androidcentral.com)