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Fortune

Business

Lily Mae Lazarus

Exclusive: Voice AI startup Bland raises $50 million after being rejected by 180 investors

Isaiah Granet smiles (Credit: Courtesy of Bland)

Isaiah Granet was rejected by 180 investors in three weeks during Y Combinator. Their reason: phone calls won’t exist in a year. He’s raised more than $100 million to prove them wrong.

Bland, the San Francisco voice AI company Granet co-founded in 2023 with Sobhan Nejad, closed a $50 million Series C led by Dell Technologies Capital, Fortune learned exclusively. HubSpot Ventures, Archerman, and Tribeca joined the round; existing backers Emergence Capital, Upfront Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, Y Combinator, Affirm co-founder Max Levchin, ElevenLabs CTO Piotr Dąbkowski, and Twilio founder Jeff Lawson also participated.

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