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Beside Raises $32 Million to Scale AI Receptionist for Small Businesses

The startup is targeting phone‑centric workers with an app that turns calls and texts into a searchable memory.

Overview

  • The round includes a $20 million Series A led by EQT Ventures, with Index Ventures and angels such as Slack founder Stewart Butterfield participating.
  • After 18 months in stealth as “M1,” the company reports more than 20,000 paying customers and about $4 million in annual recurring revenue with heavy daily engagement.
  • The product answers calls, books appointments, sends confirmations, transcribes conversations for search, handles text messages, and offers optional voice cloning.
  • Beside says it now handles millions of calls per month and rebuilt telephony infrastructure to manage number provisioning, regulatory compliance, and call routing.
  • The company plans to use the capital for hiring, product development, deeper telephony work with a longer‑term goal of carrier‑level capabilities, and expansion into Europe.