Phonic
AcquiredYC W20San Francisco, US · Founded 2019 · 8 employees · 3 known investors
Phonic develops voice AI technology designed to enable natural and reliable human-machine conversations through speech interaction.
AI & Machine LearningDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareMarketing TechSaaSArtificial 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.
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David Ferrisin𝕏FounderDavid 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.
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Mitchell Catoenin𝕏FounderMitchell Catoen previously worked at Google before founding Phonic, a company focused on AI and trading systems, and later joined Phantom.
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Moin NadeeminFounder
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Nikhil Murthy
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Arun Wongprommoon
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Kendrick Shen
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Judson Lam
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Qiong Zhou Huang
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Misha Moroshko
Investors · 3
Funding
SEC filings, press & company announcements$4M disclosed across 1 of 2 rounds · 2025
- Undisclosed amountSeed RoundApr 2025
Lux Capital (lead)
Source ↗ - $4MraisedApr 2025 · 3 sources
Lux Capital (lead)
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Source: company announcements and press reports — follow each round's link for the claim.
Competitors · 8
by search overlap
Voiceflow Black13 shared keywordsVoiceflow provides a platform for building AI agents that handle customer interactions, starting with customer support. The company serves businesses looking to deploy conversational AI across customer-facing channels.
Synthflow AI11 shared keywordsSynthflow provides a platform for building AI voice agents using a modular, API-connected builder with in-house telephony, testing sandbox, real-time call monitoring, and data fine-tuning. It targets enterprises that need to deploy and manage voice automation at scale.
ElevenLabs10 shared keywordsElevenLabs is an AI research and product company that builds voice generation and audio processing platforms for creating human-like voice interactions with technology. The company serves individuals with accessibility needs, nonprofits, and general users across healthcare, education, and culture.
Leaping AI10 shared keywordsLeapingAI builds AI voice and text agents that automate inbound and outbound calls for enterprises, handling customer support, appointment setting, and lead qualification. The platform integrates with CRMs and business tools to manage call center operations at scale.
Neuphonic9 shared keywordsNeuphonic builds open-source speech language models that run locally on-device without a GPU, offering text-to-speech and fast voice cloning across multiple languages. Its models are aimed at developers and businesses integrating private, on-device voice AI into their systems.
Retell AI9 shared keywordsRetell AI builds an enterprise-grade voice AI platform that handles phone calls for industries including healthcare, delivery, and insurance. The platform enables businesses to automate customer-facing voice interactions.
Ultravox8 shared keywordsUltravox builds a voice AI platform that enables real-time conversational AI through a purpose-built architecture for spoken interaction, serving teams looking to integrate voice capabilities into their applications.
Lindy8 shared keywordsLindy is an AI executive assistant that manages email, schedules meetings, takes notes, and handles administrative tasks for individual professionals and teams. It integrates with email, calendar, and hundreds of third-party applications to automate workplace busywork.
Companies competing with Phonic for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.
In the news
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 Lux Capital, Tola Capital, Y Combinator.
- How much funding has Phonic raised?
- Phonic has disclosed $4M raised across 1 of its 2 known rounds.
- Where is Phonic headquartered?
- Phonic is headquartered in San Francisco, US.