This YC-Backed Startup Just Raised $15M to Replace Your CRM with AI Agents

Jan de Vries · 2026-07-23

Remember the last time you had to call customer service and navigate a maze of automated menus? Or the frustration of repeating your issue to three different agents? For most of us, that's been the norm for the last two decades. But a Berlin-based startup called telli is betting that AI agents can finally change that. ### The Big News: $15M Seed Round telli, a company building AI that runs customer-facing operations for B2C companies, today announced a $15 million (€13.1 million) Seed round. This brings its total funding to over $18.5 million (€16.1 million). The round was led by redalpine, with participation from strategic investors Mutschler and key angels, alongside existing backers Cherry Ventures and Y Combinator. "Customer-facing operations are becoming too complex to run with the current tools alone," said Finn zur Muehlen, co-founder and CEO of telli. "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." ### What Is telli Actually Building? Founded in 2024 by Seb Hapte-Selassie, Philipp Baumanns, and Finn zur Muehlen, telli helps companies move beyond their old stack of CRMs, call centers, tickets, queues, dashboards, and manual operational work. Instead, they offer customer operations that are faster, more scalable, and easier for customers to interact with. Here's the thing: For the last 20 years, the way consumers interact with businesses hasn't changed much. Most communication still happens through calls, emails, SMS, filling out forms, or WhatsApp messages. Companies have adapted to these channels, but behind the scenes, most still run on the same old stack. That creates friction for both teams and customers. ### Why Now? The AI Agent Shift But things have changed drastically with the advent of AI agents. For B2C companies, this shift creates a massive operating challenge. They need to communicate wherever customers choose to communicate: voice, chat, SMS, WhatsApp, email, and soon via personal AI agents. And they need to do this while still running scalable operations and growing the business. telli claims to be built for that shift. The platform helps B2C companies run customer-facing operations end-to-end with AI. Businesses can build and deploy AI agents across channels, manage conversations, review calls, improve performance, and automate the operational work behind sales, service, and support. ### Meet Charlie: The AI Coworker At telli's core is Charlie, an AI coworker for the teams closest to the customer. Charlie helps them set up agents, connect systems, analyze conversations, spot issues, run experiments, and improve customer communication autonomously. Think of Charlie as the team member who never sleeps, never gets tired, and can handle thousands of conversations simultaneously. It's like having a super-efficient intern who learns from every interaction. ### Real Results: Millions of Conversations The company reports that its agents already handle millions of conversations for companies ranging from small businesses to large enterprises. They answer calls, qualify leads, book appointments, run follow-ups, and resolve customer requests for companies including Sky, Viessmann, Enpal, and Vaillant. - **Answer calls** 24/7 without hold times - **Qualify leads** automatically based on custom criteria - **Book appointments** directly into calendar systems - **Run follow-ups** that actually get completed - **Resolve requests** without human intervention "We've followed this space for quite some time and the telli founders are the most technically exceptional and complementary team we've encountered," said Sebastian Becker, GP at redalpine. "The value voice agents will unlock across enterprise automation is immense, and we strongly believe telli is in pole position to capture the opportunity." ### What's Next for telli? The company plans to use this capital to grow its engineering and go-to-market teams, further develop Charlie, expand its voice and multi-channel agent platform, and help B2C companies make the shift from software workflows to AI-run customer operations. For anyone watching the AI space, telli is definitely one to keep an eye on. The question isn't whether AI will transform customer operations, but who will lead that transformation. With this funding and backing from Y Combinator, telli is making a strong case that it could be the one.