# Rime secures $24M Series A to develop voice AI models for enterprise customer calls The voice AI startup aims to stand out with its specially trained models for customer service. - **Source:** [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com) - **Published:** 2026-07-15 - **Topic:** [Data & AI](https://brifing.si/c/data-ai) - **Original article:** - **On Brifing:** https://brifing.si/s/e8a48328-d165-459f-bf45-55cb903104e8 ## A new player in voice AI market Rime is a startup developing specialized voice AI models to handle customer calls. Founded in 2022 by Stanford alumni and former Amazon engineers, the company differentiates itself by collecting training data from its own recording studio in San Francisco rather than scraping the web. ## Customized training approach Instead of web scraping, Rime gathers its own conversational data through an in-house recording studio. This enables accurate pronunciation of brand names and industry-specific terms. Its phoneme-based architecture adapts to various pronunciations, eliminating the need for customers to retrain models. ## $24 million funding round Rime has closed a $24 million Series A round led by M13 Ventures, with participation from Twilio Ventures and Unusual Ventures. The startup previously raised $5.5 million in seed funding in May 2023. New funds will expand engineering and model development teams. ## Diverse industry clientele Rime serves clients in food service, healthcare, airlines, and fintech sectors. Working with enterprises like Mayo Clinic and Asurion, the company claims its models increase call duration, helping secure more enterprise contracts. Its training data focuses on industry-specific terminology. ## Technical challenges and goals Founder Lily Clifford acknowledges current voice AI still can't match traditional IVR effectiveness. Rime is shifting focus to speech-to-speech models to reduce latency and address background noise issues. This new approach will also decrease dependency on model orchestration. ## Competitive differentiation Competing against players like ElevenLabs and Deepgram, Rime stands out with low-latency, high-reliability models. M13's Morgan Blumberg highlights Rime's technical approach in regulated environments as industry-leading. The company recently added talent from NVIDIA and Meta to its team. ## Sources covering this story - https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/15/rime-picks-up-24m-series-a-to-help-enterprises-field-customer-calls/ — --- _Summary written by Brifing from the original reporting. Copyright in the original article belongs to its publisher; read the full piece at the link above._