This YC-Backed Startup Just Raised $15 Million to Reinvent Customer Service with AI

Jan de Vries · 2026-07-23

The way customers interact with businesses hasn't really changed in two decades. You still call, email, text, or fill out a form. But behind the scenes, companies are drowning in CRMs, ticketing systems, and manual workflows that create friction for everyone involved. A Berlin-based startup called telli thinks it’s time for a real shift. And investors agree. The company just announced a $15 million Seed round, bringing its total funding to $18.5 million. The round was led by redalpine, with participation from Mutschler, key angels, and existing backers Cherry Ventures and Y Combinator. ### What Exactly Does telli Do? telli builds AI agents that handle customer-facing operations for B2C companies. Think of it as a platform that lets you deploy AI across voice, chat, SMS, WhatsApp, and email — all while automating the operational work behind sales, service, and support. At the core of telli is Charlie, an AI coworker designed for teams closest to the customer. Charlie helps set up agents, connect systems, analyze conversations, spot issues, run experiments, and improve customer communication — mostly on its own. “Customer-facing operations are becoming too complex to run with the current tools alone. The next generation of consumer companies will need AI that can talk to customers, work across channels, and help teams improve the operation behind every interaction. That’s what we’re building with telli,” said Finn zur Muehlen, co-founder and CEO. ### Why Now? The AI Agent Shift For the last 20 years, most consumer businesses have relied on the same stack: CRMs, call centers, tickets, queues, dashboards, and manual work. But AI agents have changed the game. Customers now expect to communicate wherever they are — voice, chat, SMS, WhatsApp, email, and soon through personal AI agents. Companies need to be everywhere at once while keeping operations scalable. telli claims to be built for that exact challenge. Its platform helps B2C companies run end-to-end customer operations with AI. Businesses can build and deploy AI agents across channels, manage conversations, review calls, improve performance, and automate the behind-the-scenes work. ### Real-World Results telli’s agents already handle millions of conversations for companies ranging from SMBs to large enterprises. They answer calls, qualify leads, book appointments, run follow-ups, and resolve customer requests. Some of the names using telli include Sky, Viessmann, Enpal, and Vaillant. “We’ve followed this space for quite some time and the telli founders are the most technically exceptional and complementary team we’ve encountered. The value voice agents will unlock across enterprise automation is immense, and we strongly believe telli is in pole position to capture the opportunity,” said Sebastian Becker, GP at redalpine. ### What’s Next? The company plans to use the new capital to grow its engineering and go-to-market teams, further develop Charlie, expand its voice and multi-channel agent platform, and help more B2C companies make the shift from software workflows to AI-run customer operations. Founded in 2024 by Seb Hapte-Selassie, Philipp Baumanns, and Finn zur Muehlen, telli is one of the more promising startups in the AI customer operations space. If they can deliver on their vision, the way we interact with businesses might finally change.