Bland raises $50M Series C after 180 investor rejections to scale voice AI

San Francisco voice AI startup Bland closed a $50M Series C led by Dell Technologies Capital, with HubSpot Ventures, Archerman, Tribeca, and existing backers participating. Cofounder Isaiah Granet was initially rejected by 180 investors during Y Combinator who insisted phone calls would soon be obsolete. Unlike rivals wrapping third-party models, Bland runs entirely on in-house voice models and refuses customer requests to plug in OpenAI or Anthropic. The company is targeting regulated industries like insurance and healthcare with full-conversation phone agents and has now raised over $100M across three rounds.

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