LiveKit, which develops infrastructure software for real-time AI voice and video applications, announced $100 million in funding at a $1 billion valuation.
The round, which comes 10 months after LiveKit's previous funding, was led by Index Ventures with participation from existing investors including Altimeter Capital Management, hanabi Capital, and Redpoint Ventures.
LiveKit powers OpenAI's ChatGPT voice mode. The startup's other customers include xAI, Salesforce, and Tesla, as well as 911 emergency service operators and mental health providers.
The company was founded in 2021 by Russ d'Sa and David Zhao as an open source software project to build an app that could transmit real-time audio and video without interruption during the pandemic, when the entire world was meeting on Zoom.
LiveKit started as a free developer tool, but business took off after its founders realized that large enterprises wanted a managed cloud version and began offering those services to enterprises during the voice AI boom.