"Hello?" ...

The beginning of a phone call that could go one of two ways.

The old way… a human representative mechanically reciting the same script for the 437th time that day – talented people forced into robotic roles, their potential locked in repetitive tasks.

Or telli's way… AI handling the predictable parts of conversations while humans focus on the moments that truly require their creativity and empathy.

Today, Cherry Ventures is leading telli's $3.6M pre-seed round to unlock the true potential of voice communication.

Not because we're trying to replace human conversations, but precisely because we value them too much to waste on repetitive tasks.

The Enduring Power of Voice

Despite the rise of messaging apps, chatbots, and generational shifts in communication preferences, businesses continue relying on voice calls because they deliver results. At the end of the day, speech is always communicated faster and with less effort than writing. Voice remains one of the most effective tools for qualifying prospects, helping customers and creating meaningful, lasting and loyal connections.

It’s why call centres employ two digit millions - a huge trillion dollar industry worldwide. In fact, 20% of the workforce in certain industries spend their days speaking into headsets.

As employees #1 and #2 of German Unicorn, Enpal's heat pump business unit, rapidly scaled that division to become one of the company's main revenue drivers. Under their leadership, the unit grew to over 150 people in just the first year.

Looking around rooms filled with talented sales representatives who repeatedly asked identical customer-qualifying questions about roof dimensions and energy consumption, Finn had a revelation: they only needed a third of these representatives on phones.

Employees were too valuable to spend their time on robotic script-reading when their uniquely human skills could be directed toward more meaningful interactions.

To turn this insight into reality, they partnered with Sebastian Hapte-Selassie - Stanford graduate and early engineer at N26 and Pitch. His technical rigor complemented their operational expertise. Together, they founded telli to tackle one clear mission: let machines handle the repetitive parts of conversations so humans can focus on what truly matters.

The challenge was that we've been forcing humans to behave like machines before we had machines that could credibly sound like humans.

Now we do.

Why We Invested (But Almost Didn’t)

Voice AI is a crowded space. Everyone seems to be building some variation of the same thing.

At Cherry, we typically avoid crowded markets unless we see a radically different approach.

telli is different.

While many focus exclusively on the AI's ability to sound human, telli has built something far more valuable: an orchestration layer that seamlessly blends AI + human capabilities.

• They're not trying to entirely replace humans -
  
  telli recognised this is both unnecessarily ambitious and ultimately misguided. Their platform embraces a future where AI handles predictable interactions while humans focus on high-value moments that require creativity and empathy.
  
• They've solved the "last mile" problem -
  
  Voice AI that can't reach customers is worthless. telli's smart calling systems, automatic callbacks, and number rotation strategies consistently achieve connection rates that eclipse industry benchmarks.
  
• They're relentlessly focused on business outcomes -
  
  telli optimises for what happens after the call. Their system schedules appointments, updates CRMs, and drives measurable business results that can be directly attributed to their technology.
  

With this funding, telli will accelerate both product development and market expansion. The potential is enormous as the customer communication industry is undergoing seismic transformation as voice technology evolves from novelty to infrastructure.

We believe the next 18 months will be definitive for this category. The companies that can focus on real business outcomes rather than novelty, will capture an outsized portion of this opportunity.