According to Fortune, AI voice startup Beside just raised $32 million in fresh funding after emerging from stealth earlier this month. The company’s Series A round was led by EQT Ventures with $20 million, following a $10.5 million Seed round and additional SAFE notes. Beside already has impressive traction with over 20,000 paying customers generating $4 million in annual recurring revenue, and their AI receptionist handles millions of calls monthly. The startup plans to use the funding for product development, hiring, and eventual European expansion. Founder Maxime Germain describes the AI as hiring a “Harvard-grad Chief of Staff with a perfect memory” for small businesses who can’t afford full-time assistants.
How Beside actually works
Here’s the thing that makes Beside different from other AI voice players. Instead of just slapping AI on top of existing phone systems, they rebuilt telephony infrastructure from scratch. That means they handle everything from number provisioning to regulatory compliance and call forwarding. The AI receptionist answers calls directly through your existing phone number, remembers customer details, books appointments, and handles follow-ups automatically. For a hair salon, it can answer a new client’s call, ask about style preferences, book the appointment, send confirmation texts, and log everything for staff review. Basically, it’s trying to be that magical assistant who never forgets anything.
The massive small business problem
Look, the numbers here are staggering. In the UK, most small businesses answer fewer than 40% of incoming calls. Four out of five callers who get sent to voicemail never call back. That’s a ton of lost business. Beside is targeting the 100 million Americans whose jobs happen over the phone – contractors, real estate agents, hairdressers, dispatchers. These are people who literally can’t afford to miss calls but also can’t afford a full-time assistant. One insurance agency owner claims he tripled his new written premium from $40,000 to $120,000 “overnight” after using the product. When you think about it, that’s the kind of ROI that makes this technology incredibly compelling for small operations.
Where this fits in the voice AI gold rush
The voice AI market is absolutely exploding, expected to grow from $3.14 billion this year to $47.5 billion by 2034. You’ve got specialized startups like ElevenLabs and Vapi competing against Amazon and Microsoft. But Beside’s approach is different – they’re going directly to consumers and small businesses rather than targeting large enterprises. Their founding team comes from consumer tech companies like X and Snap, which probably explains the consumer-first mindset. And they’re building what they call a “second brain” for businesses where all conversations are transcribed and searchable. The company is even working on desktop apps that automatically record all your calls and meetings, whether they happen on Zoom, your phone, or in person.
The bigger vision
Germain isn’t thinking small here. Long-term, he says Beside plans to become a full mobile carrier with SIM-level integration. That’s ambitious stuff. “Delivering high-quality calls anywhere — in a truck, on a job site, across a busy city — is a really hard technical challenge,” he admits. But by mastering the complex U.S. regulatory and carrier ecosystem, they’ve built a blueprint they can replicate globally. The company is also expanding team features so small businesses of 20-50 people can share customer context seamlessly. The vision is that interacting with a Beside-powered business should feel like going to a luxury hotel where you give your name once and everyone knows your preferences. It’s a compelling vision, but the execution will be everything in this crowded space.
