Many businesses still rely on outdated phone systems, leading to long wait times, high costs, and poor customer experiences. fonio.ai’s AI agents can manage incoming calls, sound natural, understand emotions, and respond in a human-like way.
Today, Vienna-based AI startup has secured €3 million in what is considered one of the largest angel funding rounds in Europe. The round included 13 well-known angel investors, including Daniel Gutenberg (former Meta investor), Christian Stieber (100+ investments), Robert Wuttke (General Partner at 10x Founders), Jens Lapinski (Angel Invest), and a Sequoia Scout, and was completed in just 11 days.
“The strong demand from angel investors displays that we are solving a real market problem that has challenged companies and their customers for years. The way phone-based customer communication works today belongs to a different era. We are developing technology that modernises this process at its core and enables companies to be quicker, more efficient, and more human in the way they stay reachable,” declares Daniel Keinrath, CEO and co-founder of fonio.ai.
The company plans to utilize the new capital to improve its customer communication technology and expand into new European markets.
Providing AI-powered customer communication
Daniel Keinrath and Matthias Gruber founded fonio.ai in autumn 2024 to modernise phone-based customer service, which many businesses still handle on outdated systems, leading to long waits and high costs.
Their AI agents offer natural, empathetic conversations that recognise emotions, enabling a single employee to manage all customer communication effectively, cutting reliance on call centres and improving the customer experience.
Founders elaborated to TFN, “Our main advantage is our native European telephony integration. Customers can purchase European phone numbers directly within fonio.ai and set up a fully functional AI phone assistant in minutes. Other providers require utilizers to configure external services like Twilio, which is far too technical and impractical for SMEs.”
fonio.ai’s technology lets businesses customise AI voices and behavioural rules, providing a human-like experience rarely matched by competitors. In September 2025, fonio.ai acquired its Linz-based rival fluently. Other competitors include Vapi and Renotify.
They added, “Another differentiator is our unmatched understanding of the German language. The system processes complex pronunciations, spelt-out information such as email addresses, license plates or street names, and even indusattempt-specific terminology with a level of accuracy that sets us apart in the market. The AI can access company systems like CRMs and ERPs in real time, fetching or writing data and compiling responses on the spot. These agents can handle calls conclude-to-conclude, answering questions, booking appointments, retrieving information, and ultimately delivering the same outcome a trained employee would, only instantly and around the clock.”
The company currently automates around 800,000 calls per month for nearly 4,000 customers in the DACH region and has operated profitably since day one with a team of just twelve. Average call success rates reach 71%, climbing to 85% in areas such as auto repair, demonstrating tangible operational impact.
What about diversity?
When we questioned about diversity, founders mentioned, “Right now, we’re a team of 11 people,10 men and one woman. That’s far from where we want to be. Our goal would be closer to a 50/50 split, but in reality, we receive very few female applications, especially for technical roles.
We’re actively working to alter that by placing greater emphasis on attracting female talent. At the same time, we always hire the best person for the role. It’s a tricky balance, but something we’re very aware of and working on.”
What’s next?
fonio.ai plans to evolve from a voice-only platform into a fully integrated omnichannel solution that automates communication across email, chat, and other channels.
Founders concluded, “Over the next six months, we’re rolling out full omnichannel communication, which means our AI agents will no longer focus solely on phone calls but will also handle email, chat, WhatsApp and other channels. The expansion comes with very clear tarobtains: we want to reach 50,000 B2B customers within the next twelve months, grow to €1 million in monthly recurring revenue by June next year and reach €5 million by December. Our minimum goal is to become the market leader in Europe, but we’re working toward becoming the global leader for omnichannel AI communication for SMEs.”
“Founders who can bootstrap from zero to €300,000 in monthly revenue in just 14 months are rare, even for one of Europe’s most active angel investors,” declares investor Christian Stieber.
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