Restaurant-focused voice AI platform Vox AI has raised $8.7 million in seed funding.
The new financing, announced Wednesday (Aug. 27), will allow the company to speed its expansion of its business, which centers around conversational voice artificial intelligence (AI) tools for quick-service restaurant (QSR) drive-thru and operation automations.
“Vox AI is pushing voice technology far beyond generic natural language processing. We’re not just improving voice technology. We’re building a new industry standard for how guests interact with fast-food chains and QSR brands they love and how restaurant staff run them,” Vox AI Co-founder and CEO Maurice Kroon said in a news release.
“Our goal is to make voice the de facto interface for every QSR location – without the need to upgrade their current hardware.”
According to the release, Vox AI’s solution is in use with some of the world’s largest fast-food chains, with tools that include drive-thru voice AI that can handle orders in more than 90 languages and dialects.
The company’s new funding comes amid a surge in voice AI advancements, as covered here earlier in the summer.
In 2024, voice AI startups raised $2.1 billion, an eightfold increase from the previous year, according to research firm CB Insights. Some of last year’s biggest winners included ElevenLabs, which raised $180 million in a Series C funding round.
Voice-based AI agents have evolved to such a degree that they are now outperforming call centers and beginning to replace human labor in industries including healthcare and retail, according to venture capital outfit Andreessen Horowitz.
“Voice is one of the most powerful unlocks for AI application companies,” Olivia Moore, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, wrote in a 2025 AI Voice Agent Update blog post. “It is the most frequent and information-dense form of communication, made programmable for the first time due to AI.”
Moore added that voice AI allows businesses to respond to customers around the clock instead of having to wait until an office is staffed. For consumers, “We believe voice will be the first — and perhaps primary — way people interact with AI.”
However, recent PYMNTS Intelligence research shows that humanity may not be there yet, with consumers of all age groups saying they find voice to be the least intuitive way to interact with generative AI systems.
Under 20% of consumers said voice was the easiest way to use gen AI tools, according to data from the report, “Generation AI: Why Gen Z Bets Big and Boomers Hold Back.”
“Despite growing interest in hands-free and conversational AI, voice interfaces lag behind in usability,” the report said. “Whether via mobile or smart speakers, no generation ranks voice as their preferred method.”
Source: https://www.pymnts.com/
