Hyper, an ambitious new AI voice startup, has today announced a $6.3 million seed funding round led by Eniac Ventures. In conjunction with this announcement, the company has officially come out of stealth mode. It’s now positioned to transform the handling of emergency calls across the United States. CEO Ben Sanders is on a mission to make being the person who calls 911 less of a stressful ordeal. Together with Chief Product Officer Damian McCabe, she is on a mission to automate the 911 call process.
Sanders’ mission is to ensure that Hyper doesn’t become just another AI panacea. He calls out its lack of a 911 focus. The funding, he hopes, will allow Hyper to scale its operations across the country and integrate its technology into existing 911 systems.
“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,” Sanders explained.
The senator thinks a lot of the calls emergency lines are dispatching aren’t emergencies at all. This sharpens the project’s sense of urgency. He shared a vivid example to illustrate this point: “Imagine getting stuck talking to someone for eight minutes about a neighbor’s dog barking, only to answer the next call late, because of that noise complaint, and hear the trembling voice of a 5-year-old whose dad has just collapsed on the floor.” This real-world example brings to light the dangers that can occur from poorly managing call volume during disasters and emergencies.
To build its technology, Hyper trains its deep learning models using actual 911 calls provided by local agencies. This holistic approach means the company can customize its AI solutions directly to the unique nuances that come with emergency communications. As Sanders put it, the whole fundraising process was “frenetic, manic, and fast.” This is indicative of the great interest and urgency for innovations in public safety technology to hit the market.
The other new funds will allow Hyper to develop its next product and hire a chief of engineering. By taking these steps, Sanders hopes to make sure Hyper is as prepared as possible for the complexity of emergency call management.
“It’s such a tough job, I don’t even know if I could do it,” Sanders admitted when discussing the challenges faced by 911 operators. His empathy for these professionals underscores Hyper’s mission: to streamline their workload and improve response times for urgent calls.
As you can imagine, Hyper is moving quickly right now to develop its technology and expand its reach. It’s trying to change the way emergency services engage with callers. Through automation of non-critical conversations, Hyper Vision aims to improve operational productivity and effectively save more lives.