Deepgram, the real time API platform that powers the emerging voice AI economy, announced a $130 million Series C round at a $1.3 billion post money valuation. The round was led by AVP, an independent global investment platform, and was backed by a mix of existing backers, including Alkeon, In-Q-Tel, Madrona, Tiger, Wing, Y Combinator, and BlackRock managed funds, and new strategic investors, including: Alumni Ventures, Princeville Capital, the University of Michigan, Columbia University, Twilio, ServiceNow Ventures, SAP and Citi Ventures. With the raise, Deepgram’s total capital raised tops $215 million.
The capital will accelerate Deepgram’s real time voice AI infrastructure, broaden its multilingual coverage, and fund the recent acquisition of OfOne, an AI native voice platform for quick service restaurants. The company also plans to expand its patent portfolio and launch a new Voice AI Collaboration Hub in San Francisco to foster community driven innovation.
Series C Snapshot
The $130 million infusion values Deepgram at $1.3 billion and brings its cumulative funding to more than $215 million. AVP was selected as lead investor for its track record scaling category defining companies worldwide and its ability to support Deepgram’s expansion into Europe and other key markets. Existing investors rolled over, while new participants, including Alumni Ventures, Princeville Capital, Columbia University and Twilio, joined to deepen the strategic depth of the round.
“Much like Stripe delivered the API platform underpinning the payments economy, we believe Deepgram is poised to deliver the API platform underpinning the emerging trillion dollar B2B Voice AI economy,” said Elizabeth de Saint-Aignan, General Partner at AVP.
Real Time Voice AI Platform Gains Momentum
Deepgram now powers more than 1,300 organizations with a suite of models that include Aura-2 (enterprise grade text to speech), Nova-3 (real time speech to text), Flux (conversational speech recognition for interruptions), Voice Agent API and the Saga Voice OS. All models are customizable to domain specific terminology and can be deployed via cloud APIs, self hosted, or on premises solutions.
The company’s multilingual LTP (Live Transcription Platform) already supports code switching mid sentence and is on track to exceed 100 fully supported languages and dialects. “Our low latency, code switching capabilities and growing language coverage make live conversational translation a very natural extension of what we already do,” CEO Scott Stephenson told Slator.
Strategic Acquisition of OfOne Expands Restaurant Play
Deepgram acquired OfOne, an AI native voice platform built for restaurants and quick service drive throughs, to launch “Deepgram for Restaurants.” OfOne’s technology has delivered >95% containment rates and high employee satisfaction scores for national QSR brands. The integration will enable real time order taking, improved customer experience, and higher order accuracy at scale.
“We are incredibly proud to join the Deepgram team. Deepgram has built the most advanced real time voice platform in the world, and it is the perfect foundation for scaling what we started at OfOne,” said Will Edwards, GM of Deepgram for Restaurants (formerly CEO of OfOne).
Patents, IP and Global Collaboration Hub
The new funding will accelerate Deepgram’s intellectual property program, building on several U.S. patents granted in 2025, including US 12,380,880 (end to end ASR with transformer), US 12,334,075 (hardware efficient ASR) and US 12,499,875 (internal state index based search). These patents reinforce Deepgram’s leadership in deep learning architecture, representation learning and deployment efficiency.
In parallel, Deepgram is opening a Voice AI Collaboration Hub in San Francisco. The space will host hands on working sessions, live demos, executive briefings, community meetups and developer hackathons, creating a physical nexus for the voice AI ecosystem.
Why Zillionize Invested
Zillionize sees Deepgram as the foundational infrastructure layer for the trillion dollar voice AI economy, mirroring the role Stripe plays in digital payments. The company’s proven real time, low latency platform, expanding multilingual capabilities, robust patent moat, and strategic foothold in high growth verticals such as restaurant automation position it as a category defining leader. Combined with a cash flow positive track record and a roster of over 1,300 enterprise customers, Deepgram aligns perfectly with Zillionize’s ethos of backing deep tech companies that become the invisible engines of tomorrow’s digital interactions.