NEW YORK – Hyper, an artificial intelligence (AI) voice company, has successfully raised $6.3 million in seed funding to advance its mission of automating non-emergency 911 calls. The capital infusion aims to help scale the company's operations nationwide, integrate its technology into existing 911 systems, and further develop its product offerings.
The funding round was swift, described as “frenetic, manic, and fast” by CEO Ben Sanders, closing in less than two months and being oversubscribed. Key investors in this round include Eniac Ventures, Ripple Ventures, GreatPoint Ventures, VSC Ventures, Tusk Venture Partners, and K5 Global. Sanders, who previously developed AI voice technology for drive-through restaurants, co-founded Hyper with Damian McCabe, the company's Chief Product Officer.
Hyper's technology is designed to address the significant challenge faced by emergency call centers, where a large percentage of calls are non-emergencies. Approximately 60% of 911 calls do not qualify as actual emergencies, yet they consume valuable dispatcher time. By automating these non-urgent inquiries, Hyper aims to free up human dispatchers to focus on critical, life-threatening situations.
The company's platform can answer questions, text links, forward calls, and even take non-emergency police reports. Sanders emphasized Hyper's cautious approach, stating, “Hyper always plays it safe, so if any calls fall outside the approved scope, or if one sounds slightly more emergency, we can automatically escalate those to a human expert just in case.” This ensures that genuine emergencies are always handled by human operators.
The integration of AI in emergency services is gaining traction as 911 centers grapple with understaffing and high call volumes. AI solutions are seen as a way to improve response times, streamline operations, and enhance efficiency. Hyper's focus on offloading non-emergency calls aligns with a broader industry trend to modernize emergency communication infrastructure.