AI voice startup Vapi hits $500M valuation after winning Amazon Ring over 40 rivals
Vapi says its enterprise business has grown 10-fold since early 2025 as companies shift customer support and sales calls to AI agents.
Amazon Ring, facing a surge in customer-support calls during last year’s holiday season, evaluated more than 40 AI voice vendors before choosing startup Vapi to handle its inbound phone traffic. Today, Ring routes 100% of its inbound calls through Vapi’s platform.
That deployment helped Vapi raise a $50 million Series B led by Peak XV Partners at a valuation of around $500 million after investment, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Ring turned to Vapi in mid-Q4 last year, when it was weighing whether to expand call-center capacity, rely more heavily on traditional automated phone systems, or deploy AI agents that could respond more naturally to customers, Vapi Chief Executive Jordan Dearsley (pictured above, left) told TechCrunch. Dearsley believes Ring chose Vapi because if offered Ring engineers granular control over how the AI agents behaved in live customer interactions.
Jason Mitura, vice president of software development at Amazon Ring, said Ring’s customer satisfaction scores improved after deploying Vapi’s platform and that the company’s teams were able to tune the AI agent experience without depending on engineering. “A lot of AI tools promise great outcomes — Vapi has delivered on them,” he said.
Founded by Dearsley and his University of Waterloo classmate Nikhil Gupta (pictured above, right), Vapi grew out of an AI therapist Dearsley built in 2023 for conversations during his daily walks. The pair, who had gone through Y Combinator with productivity startup Superpowered, found that while few people wanted the therapy product itself, startups were increasingly interested in the low-latency voice infrastructure underneath it. This led them to pivot to Vapi and launch the platform publicly in 2024.
Vapi provides tools for companies to build, deploy, and manage voice agents across customer support, lead qualification, appointment scheduling, and outbound sales.
The startup says it has now handled more than 1 billion calls through its platform, with usage accelerating as enterprises move more customer interactions onto AI systems. Vapi, Dearsley said, currently processes between 1 million and 5 million calls a day, with enterprise customers accounting for the bulk of that volume.
In addition to Amazon Ring, Vapi's enterprise customers include Kavak, Instawork, New York Life, UnityAI, Cherry, and Intuit. The startup also operates a self-serve developer platform that has been used by more than 1 million developers.
"Because we started from self-serve and had such a wide developer footprint, we were already battle-tested at significant scale before we signed our first major enterprise customer," Dearsley said.
Other investors participating in the Series B round included Microsoft's M12, Kleiner Perkins, and Bessemer Venture Partners, bringing Vapi's total funding to $72 million. The startup is currently at an annual recurring revenue run rate in the "healthy" eight figures, an investor source told TechCrunch.
Vapi is part of a growing wave of AI voice startups that includes Sierra, Decagon, PolyAI, Bland, Retell, and ElevenLabs, as companies race to build systems capable of handling customer conversations with minimal human involvement. Dearsley said Vapi differentiates itself by focusing less on pre-packaged applications and more on the infrastructure and orchestration layer behind voice agents, particularly for enterprises that want greater control over reliability, compliance, and model behavior.
The startup currently has around 100 employees and plans to use the new funding to expand its engineering, infrastructure, and go-to-market teams.
"The golden problem is taking this indeterminate beast that is a model and taming it," Dearsley said. "If you can do that, then you can provide value to the world."
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Jagmeet covers startups, tech policy-related updates, and all other major tech-centric developments from India for TechCrunch. He previously worked as a principal correspondent at NDTV.
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Key takeaways
- Vapi's valuation reflects the growing adoption of AI in customer service, a trend that could benefit Brazilian startups.
- Granular control over customer experience becomes a competitive differentiator, highlighting the importance of personalized solutions.
- Vapi's growth indicates a rising demand for AI solutions, representing opportunities for investors and innovative startups.
Editorial analysis
The recent $500 million valuation of startup Vapi, after winning over Amazon Ring, highlights a growing trend in the tech sector both in Brazil and globally: the adoption of AI-based voice agents to optimize customer service. This shift not only reflects companies' need to improve operational efficiency but also indicates a changing perception of AI, which is becoming an essential tool for consumer interaction. For Brazil, where the customer service market is robust and diverse, the rise of solutions like Vapi's could inspire local startups to explore similar niches, especially in sectors like e-commerce and financial services.
Moreover, Vapi's selection by Amazon Ring, which evaluated over 40 vendors, underscores the importance of providing granular control over customer experience. This suggests that in the future, companies wishing to stand out in the market will need not only advanced technology but also a user-centered approach that allows for personalized interactions. This aspect could be a significant competitive differentiator for Brazilian startups looking to enter the global ecosystem.
Vapi's exponential growth, processing between 1 and 5 million calls per day, indicates that demand for AI solutions is on the rise. Companies are increasingly willing to invest in technology that enhances customer satisfaction and reduces operational costs. For investors, this represents an opportunity to identify and support startups at the forefront of this digital transformation. What we observe is a race to develop solutions that not only meet current needs but are also scalable and adaptable to a future where AI will play an even more central role in business operations.
Finally, Vapi's journey, which began with an AI therapy project, illustrates the importance of flexibility and adaptation in the startup world. The ability to pivot and find a viable market is crucial, especially in a rapidly evolving tech environment. Brazilian startups should take note of these lessons and consider how they can innovate and adapt to emerging market needs, leveraging the growing acceptance of AI to transform their operations and deliver real value to consumers.
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