Y combinator-backed AI call receptionist raises $22 million series A. Phonely raises $22M to supercharge AI receptionists, replacing humans at scale. US startup accelerator Y combinator has doubled down on a university of melbourne spin out in a $22 million (US$16m) series A. The round for Phonely was led by Base10 Partners, supported by YC, as well as three of the startup's enterprise customers Etech Global Services, customer experience platform TSA Group, and Engage CX, and others. The new capital values the business at US$100m (A$139m). The startup's raised more than A$26m. Phonely was founded in 2023 by PhD AI researcher Will Bodewes and Nisal Ranasinghe, and spun out of the university's AI Research Lab to launch in early 2024. They've since based the business in San Francisco. Bodewes describes it as like the the voice assistant from 'Iron Man', but for business. Get the best of startup daily straight to your inbox. * indicates required Phonely uses a company's website to create an AI receptionist that answers FAQs, routes calls, and books appointments, and can be set up in just 5 minutes. Phonely now handles millions of calls per month across thousands of businesses. It's also a leading AI job destroyer, with one customer replacing 350 human agents in a month with the platform. Xander van der Westhuizen, head of AI data and innovation at client and investor TSA Group said they have 4,500 human agents. "We didn't believe AI could match that level of conversational quality at scale," he said. "Working with the Phonely team, we've been able to create AI agents that resolve calls better than our best people." Fellow investor and customer Engage CX had more than $14 million in insurance policy sales via Phonely in the first four months of 2026.

The legendary US accelerator has gone all-in on bringing Phonely to the world's attention with posts that make it an instant rising star