Amsterdam-based VOX AI, a conversational AI startup, has secured $8.7M (approximately €7.5M) in the latest funding round by global venture capital firm Headline.

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Based out of San Francisco, Headline is a venture capital firm that invests in various regions and leads funding rounds at all stages.

The VC’s early-stage funds are based in the US, Europe, Asia, and Brazil, allowing us to invest locally.

Additionally, the Growth Fund based in San Francisco invests globally, starting from Series B and beyond, and works in collaboration with the Early Stage teams.

Some notable companies it has invested in include Sonos, The RealReal, Creditas, Sorare, Pismo, AppFolio, goPuff, Acorns, Farfetch, Segment, Bumble, and Yeahka.

“Vox AI delivers something the QSR space has never had before: autonomous, intelligent, real-time voice interaction at a global scale. It’s not a feature – it’s a platform shift,” said Dominic Wilhelm, Partner at Headline. “We are thrilled to partner with the Vox AI team to power the future of drive-thru and QSR ordering to not only improve companies’ bottom lines, but also reduce employee turnover and improve customer satisfaction.”

Other investors, including True, Simon Capital, and existing investor Souschef Ventures, participated in the round. The latest round brings the total funding amount raised to $10M (approximately €8.6M).

The funding will accelerate the international growth, including the opening of a new office in San Francisco.

VOX AI: Multilingual voice assistant

Founded in 2023, VOX AI is a multilingual voice assistant designed for quick-service restaurants (QSRs).

It allows customers to place drive-thru and mobile orders independently and provides staff with real-time guidance and alerts from restaurant systems.

 Vox AI supports over 90 languages and dialects, imitating human speech and adapting to different accents, menu terms, background noise, and specific locations in real time.

The platform offers “Employee Assist,” which helps staff manage inventory and operational tasks.

Led by Maurice Kroon, the Dutch company is set to capture the €863B global QSR market through addressing challenges such as labour shortages, high turnover, rising wages, and complex operations.

Currently, the company’s key products and features of Vox AI include:

  • Truly Autonomous AI 
  • Drive-Thru Voice Ordering
  • Real-World Intelligence 
  • Seamless Integration
  • Mobile Ordering Integration
  • Employee Assist

“Vox AI is pushing voice technology far beyond generic NLP. We’re not just improving voice technology – we’re creating a new industry standard for how guests interact with QSR brands and how staff operate them,” says Maurice Kroon, Co-founder and CEO of Vox AI.

“Our goal is to make voice the default interface for every QSR location, without requiring expensive hardware upgrades.”

According to the company’s claims, early deployments show the technology can increase ROI by up to 17x, shorten drive-thru queues, enhance upselling, and free staff to focus on customer service.