Berlin‑based startup telli secured a €13.1 million seed round to power AI‑driven customer‑facing operations across voice, chat and SMS channels.

Berlin‑based startup telli has closed a €13.1 million seed round, backed by Y Combinator, to accelerate its AI platform that automates B2C customer operations across voice, chat and SMS channels.

Funding round details

The seed round was led by early‑stage investors including Y Combinator, with participation from European venture firms. The capital will be used to expand the engineering team, enhance multilingual AI capabilities, and scale go‑to‑market efforts throughout Europe.

AI‑driven customer operations

telli’s platform leverages large language models to understand and respond to customer inquiries in real time, routing calls, handling chat sessions, and managing SMS interactions without human intervention. The solution promises to reduce handling time and operational costs for retailers and service providers.

Key features include sentiment analysis, dynamic script generation for voice agents, and seamless integration with existing CRM and contact‑center tools.

Market opportunity

The European B2C contact‑center market is rapidly adopting AI to meet rising consumer expectations for instant, personalized service. telli aims to capture a share of this growth by offering a unified, channel‑agnostic platform.

  • Voice assistants and IVR automation
  • Live chat and messaging bots
  • SMS outreach and feedback loops

Founder and CEO Maria Schmidt highlighted that the seed funding will enable telli to launch pilot programs with several major retail chains later this year.

Our goal is to make AI the default front‑line for every B2C interaction, freeing human agents to focus on complex issues.

The round underscores continued investor confidence in AI‑powered customer experience solutions, especially those emerging from Y Combinator’s European cohort.

For more details, see the EU‑Startups coverage of YC‑backed telli’s €13.1 million raise.