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PolyAI raises $86M to transform how enterprises talk to their customers

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London-Based PolyAI Secures $86M Funding In Series D Round

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PolyAI raises $86M

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PolyAI raises $86m Series D: Voice AI from sci-fi to infrastructure

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PolyAI raises $86M to scale Human-Like Voice Agents for Enterprise Customer Service

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Nvidias VC arm backs PolyAI in $86m Series D round

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PolyAI Series D: $86M to Advance CX Automation in Large Enterprises

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Polyai Raises 86 Million As Fight To Answer Calls With Ai Heats Up

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How AI ruined voice assistants: losing the basics in the race for more

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Poly AI

Agent Studio: The only voice-first omnichannel platform for conversational AI

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Demis Hassabis

Melanie Mitchell

Sam Altman

Dario Amodei

Geoffrey Hinton

Yann LeCun

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Max Tegmark

Connor Leahy

Eliezer Yudkowsky

Jaan Tallinn

Marc Andreessen

Eric Schmidt

Norbert Wiener

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Irving John Good

Claude Shannon

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There's a "wall of fear-mongering and doomerism" in the AI world right now.

"Worrying about AI today is like worrying about overpopulation on Mars."

Concerns that AI could pose a threat to humanity is "preposterously ridiculous."

Claiming AI poses an existential threat is "such an extreme" and risks "wip[ing] out some of its potential benefits."

"I'm more concerned about... the risks that are here and now [than the existential threat of AI]."

Current AI is "not anywhere close" to posing an existential threat but it could in the future.

AI is the "biggest existential threat" to humanity.

AGI's worst-case scenario would be "lights-out for all of us."

Powerful AI systems "taking control" pose an "existential threat."

AI has a "10 to 25 per cent" chance of destroying humanity.

"The most likely result of building a superhumanly smart AI... is that literally everyone on Earth will die."

Does AI Pose an Existential Threat to Humanity?

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"AI may cause the most dramatic and sustained economic boom of all time."

AI will make the world "way wealthier" and lead to a "productivity boom."

AI is an "amplifier of human intelligence" and will help the economy thrive.

AI will enable "universal high income" in place of "universal basic income."

"AI may become the heart of future economic growth in the coming decades."

AI harms could include "disrupting economies."

AI could "disrupt job markets."

"AI and technological unemployment" are the "biggest problem we face" from an "economic point of view."

"The moment superintelligent AI emerges, the human economy will end."

Will AI Bring Economic Risks?

PolyAI, a London-based startup founded in 2017 by Nikola Mrkšić, Shawn Wen and Pei-Hao Su who met at the University of Cambridge's dialogue systems group, raised $86 million in Series D funding co-led by Georgian, Hedosophia and Khosla Ventures on December 15, 2025.

PolyAI, a London-based startup founded in 2017 by Nikola Mrkšić, Shawn Wen and Pei-Hao Su who met at the University of Cambridge's dialogue systems group, raised $86 million in Series D funding co-led by Georgian, Hedosophia and Khosla Ventures on December 15, 2025.

The funding round included participation from NVentures, which is NVIDIA's venture capital arm, along with the British Business Bank, which invested £15 million, Citi Ventures, Squarepoint Ventures, Sands Capital, Zendesk Ventures and Point72 Ventures.

The funding round included participation from NVentures, which is NVIDIA's venture capital arm, along with the British Business Bank, which invested £15 million, Citi Ventures, Squarepoint Ventures, Sands Capital, Zendesk Ventures and Point72 Ventures.

PolyAI has surpassed $200 million in total funding and serves over 100 enterprise customers with more than 2,000 live deployments across 45 languages in more than 25 countries, including clients such as Marriott, Caesars Entertainment, FedEx, UniCredit and Foot Locker.

PolyAI has surpassed $200 million in total funding and serves over 100 enterprise customers with more than 2,000 live deployments across 45 languages in more than 25 countries, including clients such as Marriott, Caesars Entertainment, FedEx, UniCredit and Foot Locker.

According to a Total Economic Impact study by Forrester, PolyAI customers achieve 391% return on investment, including an average of $10.3 million in savings, and the company's AI agents perform work equivalent to 1,000 or more full-time employees at multiple enterprises.

According to a Total Economic Impact study by Forrester, PolyAI customers achieve 391% return on investment, including an average of $10.3 million in savings, and the company's AI agents perform work equivalent to 1,000 or more full-time employees at multiple enterprises.

PolyAI's voice agents use proprietary speech recognition and dialogue models designed for phone conversations that can handle interruptions, clarifications and digressions, and the company launched its Agent Studio platform in April 2025 for building conversational AI agents.

PolyAI's voice agents use proprietary speech recognition and dialogue models designed for phone conversations that can handle interruptions, clarifications and digressions, and the company launched its Agent Studio platform in April 2025 for building conversational AI agents.

The company will use the funding to develop its Agent Studio platform technology and expand go-to-market efforts across North America, Europe and additional verticals beyond its current enterprise clients in logistics, hospitality, financial services and retail sectors.

The company will use the funding to develop its Agent Studio platform technology and expand go-to-market efforts across North America, Europe and additional verticals beyond its current enterprise clients in logistics, hospitality, financial services and retail sectors.

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PolyAI, a London-based conversational AI startup founded in 2017 by Nikola Mrkšić, Shawn Wen and Pei-Hao Su at the University of Cambridge, raised $86 million in Series D funding co-led by Georgian, Hedosophia and Khosla Ventures, bringing total funding over $200 million.

PolyAI, a London-based conversational AI startup founded in 2017 by Nikola Mrkšić, Shawn Wen and Pei-Hao Su at the University of Cambridge, raised $86 million in Series D funding co-led by Georgian, Hedosophia and Khosla Ventures, bringing total funding over $200 million.

The funding round included participation from NVentures, the venture capital arm of NVIDIA, along with British Business Bank, Citi Ventures, Squarepoint Ventures, Sands Capital, Zendesk Ventures and Point72 Ventures, with the British Business Bank contributing £15 million.

The funding round included participation from NVentures, the venture capital arm of NVIDIA, along with British Business Bank, Citi Ventures, Squarepoint Ventures, Sands Capital, Zendesk Ventures and Point72 Ventures, with the British Business Bank contributing £15 million.

PolyAI serves over 100 enterprise customers with more than 2,000 live deployments across 45 languages in over 25 countries, including Marriott, Caesars Entertainment, FedEx, UniCredit, Foot Locker, Hilton and PG&E in sectors such as hospitality, logistics, financial services and retail.

PolyAI serves over 100 enterprise customers with more than 2,000 live deployments across 45 languages in over 25 countries, including Marriott, Caesars Entertainment, FedEx, UniCredit, Foot Locker, Hilton and PG&E in sectors such as hospitality, logistics, financial services and retail.

According to a Total Economic Impact study by Forrester, PolyAI customers achieve 391% return on investment with an average of $10.3 million in savings, and the company's AI agents perform work equivalent to 1,000 or more full-time employees at multiple enterprises.

According to a Total Economic Impact study by Forrester, PolyAI customers achieve 391% return on investment with an average of $10.3 million in savings, and the company's AI agents perform work equivalent to 1,000 or more full-time employees at multiple enterprises.

PolyAI's Agent Studio platform, launched in April 2025, combines proprietary speech recognition and dialogue models with tools for building voice-first conversational agents that can handle authentication, bookings, payments and complex multi-turn dialogues across different accents and languages.

PolyAI's Agent Studio platform, launched in April 2025, combines proprietary speech recognition and dialogue models with tools for building voice-first conversational agents that can handle authentication, bookings, payments and complex multi-turn dialogues across different accents and languages.

The company will use the funding to develop its proprietary technology and expand go-to-market efforts across North America and Europe, as UK AI companies raised £3.9 billion in 2025 compared to £1 billion across all of 2024, according to industry data.

The company will use the funding to develop its proprietary technology and expand go-to-market efforts across North America and Europe, as UK AI companies raised £3.9 billion in 2025 compared to £1 billion across all of 2024, according to industry data.

Artificial Intelligence

PolyAI Raises $86M Series D, Surpasses $200M Total Funding

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Voice assistants have been ruined by the AI arms race. Companies replaced reliable tools that handled reminders and timers with chatbots that fail at basic tasks, prioritizing flashy demos over actual utility and leaving users with products that simply don't work.

Voice assistants have been ruined by the AI arms race. Companies replaced reliable tools that handled reminders and timers with chatbots that fail at basic tasks, prioritizing flashy demos over actual utility and leaving users with products that simply don't work.

Breakthrough GPU-based speech decoding technology is revolutionizing voice agents by eliminating latency bottlenecks. Moving decoding entirely to the GPU enables instant, natural voice interactions that finally deliver on the promise of truly responsive AI assistants.

Breakthrough GPU-based speech decoding technology is revolutionizing voice agents by eliminating latency bottlenecks. Moving decoding entirely to the GPU enables instant, natural voice interactions that finally deliver on the promise of truly responsive AI assistants.

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PolyAI Raises $86M Series D for AI Voice Agent Platform

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