• Poland’s Talkie AI provides NLP-powered voicebots for healthcare institutions’ call centers
• The company covered a number of milestones, including setting a firm foot in the US market and becoming one of the award winners at Vestbee’s CEE Startup Challenge 2023
• The company’s plans include scaling its clientele and expanding its offering through adding more client-facing operations

Among the many year-end events of this December, Vestbee announced the winners of its CEE Startup Challenge 2023. ITKeyMedia highlights the winning startups.

Another Mission for a Seasoned Team

Talkie AI, the Polish developer of voicebots for healthcare institutions, got the silver. Founded in 2018 by experienced Polish entrepreneur Paweł Lipiński (CEO) and his team, the company has already raised a total of almost USD 5M from such renowned VCs as Gateway Ventures, LT Capital (invested in Biocam, among others), Movens Capital (invested in Certifier, among others), SATUS Starter, and ZAKA VC (invested in Cruxo, among others), and set a firm foot on North American soil.

All the founders had previous experience building large-scale software products and managing large teams. With the joint professional experience of around 50 years, they could just as well start almost any project.

‘Paweł Lipiński is an extremely experienced and determined founder who has previously gone through the entire process of building a company from scratch to its sale to a major industry player,’ SATUS Starter’s managing partner Stanisław Rogoziński tells ITKeyMedia.

LT Capital invested in Talkie AI early on, confident in its top-notch tech and global growth plans led by an experienced team with serial entrepreneurs on the board.

‘We remain bullish on the healthcare sector, strategically investing in AI-driven enterprises. Despite market fluctuations, we believe in sustained growth in technologies enhancing healthcare, citing their vital societal impact as a driving force for long-term success,’ LT Capital’s founder and managing partner Tomasz Jastrzębski tells ITKeyMedia.

AI for Simple and Efficient Customer Service Automation

‘Mr Lipiński had already exited one startup before, and the team had a clear vision and high ambitions for Talkie AI,’ ZAKA VC’s co-founder and managing partner Dr Ján Kasper reminds.

The team realized that the AI technology is finally at the stage where it can successfully automate customer service processes, helping hospitals and patient access staff and patients themselves.

‘So, Talkie AI attacked the rapidly growing AI voice assistants market, starting with general voicebots, driven by the mission to reduce the costs of operating client centers and, at the same time, increase their availability,’ Dr Kasper comments.

‘As a fund, we have a strong belief that the adoption of AI in the coming years will occur most rapidly in areas related to speech and image processing. We aim to invest in companies that genuinely improve the quality of life. Improving efficiency in health services contributes to achieving this goal. Additionally, considering the changes in this market, it seems that we have perfect timing,’ Mr Rogoziński states.

‘The broader economic trend favoring automation and efficiency was among the factors that influenced our investment decision. Talkie AI’s solution aligns perfectly with the increasing need for automated business processes amid rising labor costs. The platform’s simplicity, rapid deployment, and superior quality set it apart in the marketplace,’ Movens Capital’s partner Artur Banach adds.

Capacities and Deployment

Talkie AI’s home country was something of a sandbox, from which the company soon crossed over to the North American markets – primarily for the obvious commercial reasons, as Mr Lipiński admits. He assures, however, that the platform can support almost any language. Moreover, Talkie AI already has fully trained models for almost all European languages.

However, since Talkie AI’s voicebots are primarily used for such regular tasks as managing appointments, refilling prescriptions, etc., they integrate with legacy tools. According to Mr Lipiński, Talkie AI integrates with major EHR systems in Poland and the USA. As such, further geographic expansions may require not only sales and marketing efforts, but also more integrations.

As for the deployment, it takes 2-4 weeks for a healthcare institution to roll out and launch Talkie AI.

Rapid Client Acquisition and Further Product Development

For Mr Banach, Talkie AI’s no-code AI-powered voicebots and the company’s rapid client acquisition – initially in Poland and soon after in the USA – are particularly impressive. His fund also shares the founders’ view that natural language understanding provides a competitive edge in the crucial area of voicebots.

Talkie AI’s current primary focus is commercial growth. Mr Lipiński mentions a pipeline of clients to onboard both in the US and Europe. Without neglecting the product side, the company is also working on further product improvements with AI technologies and implementing more patient-facing processes.

Talkie AI platform addresses the specific needs of healthcare providers and their patients alike. This positions it as a valuable tool for the digital transformation of healthcare operations and enhancing patient care.