Beside, an AI voice startup that emerged from stealth earlier this month has raised $32 million to expand its ‘AI receptionist,’ which is already handling millions of calls per month.
The startup’s AI receptionist aims to fill the gap for people and small businesses who can’t afford a full-time assistant. It answers calls, remembers customer details, books appointments, and handles follow-ups, all through an app that connects directly to a customer’s existing phone number.
“We think of it like hiring a Harvard-grad Chief of Staff with a perfect memory,” Maxime Germain, Beside’s Paris-based founder and CEO, told Fortune. “Over time, it becomes a trusted partner who understands your customers, owns the follow-through, and helps you win more business.”
Kaushik Subramanian, partner at EQT Ventures, said: “Beside isn’t just optimizing communications between businesses and customers, it’s completely rethinking how work gets done.”
The company has spent 18 months in stealth under the name M1, reaching $4 million in annual recurring revenue with more than 20,000 paying customers, half of whom open the app 14 times a day, six days a week.
“We have lawyers, we have doctors, we also have priests and churches using the product. It’s made for any industry, but aimed at the same person or the same mindset in each of these industries…if you really care about your customer and want to offer a much higher experience, the detail of this conversation is going to be so important for you,” Germain said.
For a hair salon, for example, that means the AI can answer a new client’s call, ask about details such as desired style, book an appointment slot, and automatically send a confirmation text, all while logging the conversation details and adding the appointment to the salon’s calendar. These interactions are captured and searchable, so staff can review exactly what the customer requested before they arrive.
“Not being stressed about forgetting anything a customer wants is invaluable,” Dominic Santiago, who runs a commercial landscaping business based in New Jersey and uses Beside’s app for his business, said. “It keeps everything on track and changes the experience of running my business completely.”
The AI can also handle text conversations, and users can even clone their own voice. All conversations are transcribed and searchable, creating what Beside calls a “second brain” for small businesses.
Tim Curts, who co-owns a Ventura-based insurance agency, says he went from $40,000 in new written premium to $120,000 “overnight, just by myself” after using the product.
The company is also focused on expanding team features, letting small businesses of 20-50 people share customer context so everyone knows a client’s history and preferences without asking twice.
“If you interact with a business powered by Beside, it should feel the same as going to a super luxurious hotel where you give your name once and everyone in the hotel knows your name, they know your bedroom. They know your preferences. You never have to say the same thing. You’re just being taken care of,” Germain said.
Rather than layering AI on top of existing phone systems, Beside rebuilt telephony infrastructure from the ground up. The company now handles millions of calls per month, managing number provisioning, regulatory compliance, call forwarding, and porting. Long-term, Germain says the company plans to become a full mobile carrier with SIM-level integration.
“Delivering high-quality calls anywhere—in a truck, on a job site, across a busy city—is a really hard technical challenge,” he says. “By mastering the U.S.’s complex regulatory and carrier ecosystem, we’ve built a blueprint we can replicate globally.”
