telli

Telli is a German-based artificial intelligence company that has developed a call automation platform for business-to-consumer (B2C) companies. Founded in 2024 by Seb Hapte-Selassie (CTO), Finn zur Muehlen (CEO), and Philipp Baumanns (COO), the company is a participant in the Y Combinator Fall 2024 batch. The founding team combines experience from prominent technology and energy companies; Hapte-Selassie was an early engineer at Pitch and studied computer science at Stanford, while zur Muehlen and Baumanns were instrumental in scaling the heat pump unit of German energy unicorn, Enpal. Their direct experience with the complexities of phone-based customer acquisition informed the development of telli's product.

The company's platform provides AI voice agents designed to convert leads into sales opportunities. These agents can conduct human-like conversations in multiple languages to manage tasks such as lead qualification, appointment booking, inbound customer service, and reactivation campaigns. Telli's service is aimed at businesses in sectors like real estate, energy, healthcare, and financial services that rely on outbound and inbound calls to drive sales. The platform's business model is designed to reduce the high costs associated with traditional call centers, which can be around $55 per connected call hour, and improve lead conversion rates. It integrates with existing CRM systems and provides real-time analytics and A/B testing capabilities to offer insights into call performance.

Since its launch, telli has processed nearly a million calls for clients in Germany, the UK, Latin America, and the US. The company secured $3.6 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Cherry Ventures and Y Combinator. Telli aims to create a collaborative environment where AI agents and human teams work together to handle high-volume customer communication.

Keywords: AI voice agents, call automation, B2C sales, lead conversion, sales automation, customer engagement, outbound calling, appointment booking, AI sales agent, lead qualification, contact center AI, conversational AI, automated outreach, real estate tech, energy sales, healthcare communication, financial services tech, Y Combinator, AI call center