Phonic was founded by David Ferris, Mitchell Catoen, Moin Nadeem, Nikhil Murthy in 2019.

Who are Phonic's investors?

Phonic's investors include Essence Venture Capital, Lux Capital, Tola Capital, Y Combinator, Zillionize, Romulus Capital, Supernode Ventures.

How much funding has Phonic raised?

Phonic has disclosed $4M raised across 1 of its 3 known rounds.

Where is Phonic headquartered?

Phonic is headquartered in San Francisco, US.

Phonic

AcquiredYC W20

San Francisco, US · Founded 2019 · 8 employees · 7 known investors

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Phonic develops voice AI technology designed to enable natural and reliable human-machine conversations through speech interaction.

AI & Machine Learning Developer Tools Enterprise Software Marketing Tech SaaS Artificial IntelligenceUnited States of AmericaAmerica / CanadaPartly Remote

Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (W20)

Phonic was founded in 2019 by David Ferris, Mitchell Catoen, Moin Nadeem, and Nikhil Murthy.

David Ferris FounderDavid Ferris holds a degree in Mechatronics Engineering from the University of Waterloo. He worked as a software engineer at Google on real-time ad auctions and as an AI engineer at Uber on Global Intelligence before co-founding Phonic, which he led as CEO until its acquisition by Infillion in 2023.

Mitchell Catoen FounderMitchell Catoen previously worked at Google before founding Phonic, a company focused on AI and trading systems, and later joined Phantom.

Moin Nadeem FounderMoin Nadeem is founder of Phonic, which develops voice AI technology for natural and reliable human-machine conversations through speech interaction.

Nikhil MurthyFounder

Arun Wongprommoon

Kendrick Shen

Judson Lam

Qiong Zhou Huang

Misha Moroshko

Investors · 7

Essence Venture Capitallisted by Essence Venture CapitalSan Francisco · $10K – $10M

How we know: Essence Venture Capital's portfolio page · Not right? Tell us

Lux Capitallisted by Lux CapitalNew York · $100K – $100M

How we know: Lux Capital's portfolio page · a partner's Signal profile · funding news · prnewswire.com · Not right? Tell us

Tola Capitallisted by Tola CapitalSeattle · $1M – $15M

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Y Combinatorlisted by Y CombinatorSan Francisco · $500K

How we know: the Y Combinator directory · open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

Zillionizelisted by ZillionizePalo Alto · $200K

How we know: Zillionize's portfolio page · Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Romulus CapitalreportedBoston · $250K – $10M

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Supernode VenturesreportedNew York · $500K – $1.3M

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Funding

SEC filings, press & company announcements

$4M disclosed across 1 of 3 rounds · 2021–2025

Undisclosed amountSeed RoundApr 2025
Lux Capital (lead)
Source ↗
$4MraisedApr 2025 · 3 sources
Lux Capital (lead)
Source ↗
Undisclosed amountseed roundOct 2021
Source ↗

Source: company announcements and press reports — follow each round's link for the claim.

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NeuphonicNeuphonic builds ultra-low latency text-to-speech models for real-time AI voice interactions that run on-device without internet connectivity. The company develops open-source AI voice technology enabling developers to build voice-native applications.

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Companies working in the same space as Phonic.

Legal entities · 1

corporate structure

Phonic Inc.

In the news

Phonic announces $2.2M seed round and launches voice and video survey platformphonic.ai · Oct 2021

Frequently asked questions

What does Phonic do?: Phonic develops voice AI technology designed to enable natural and reliable human-machine conversations through speech interaction.
Who founded Phonic?: Phonic was founded by David Ferris, Mitchell Catoen, Moin Nadeem, Nikhil Murthy in 2019.
Who are Phonic's investors?: Phonic's investors include Essence Venture Capital, Lux Capital, Tola Capital, Y Combinator, Zillionize, Romulus Capital, Supernode Ventures.
How much funding has Phonic raised?: Phonic has disclosed $4M raised across 1 of its 3 known rounds.
Where is Phonic headquartered?: Phonic is headquartered in San Francisco, US.