Bengaluru-based voice AI startup Arrowhead has successfully closed its Seed funding round, raising $3 Million (₹27 Cr). The round was led by early-stage VC firm Stellaris Venture Partners, with participation from a suite of high-profile fintech angels.
The investment marks Arrowhead's first institutional capital raise, following a smaller pre-seed round of $320K. The startup plans to use the funds to scale its deployment of "Voice AI Agents" across India's banking and NBFC sectors.
FounderStory Intelligence
Angel Heavyweights Join In
The cap table for this round reads like a "Who's Who" of Indian Fintech. Alongside Stellaris, the round saw participation from:
- Kunal Shah: Founder, CRED
- Madhusudanan R: Co-founder, M2P Fintech
- Senior Executives from Turtlemint and Kissht
The participation of these domain experts validates Arrowhead's thesis: Financial institutions are desperate for automation in sales and collections, but generic chatbots aren't cutting it.
The Problem: Human Limitations in Sales
Founded in 2022 by Devyani Gupta and Vengadanathan Srinivasan, Arrowhead addresses a critical bottleneck in the BFSI (Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance) sector: the reliance on human call centers.
Human agents are expensive, have high attrition rates, and struggle with consistency. Arrowhead builds Voice AI Agents that can converse in natural language, handle objections, and close sales for products like loans, insurance, and credit cards.
"While the startup has both India and US entities, it operates largely out of India, targeting the massive domestic BFSI market."
FounderStory Takeaway
Voice AI is moving from "customer support" (answering queries) to "revenue generation" (sales). Arrowhead's ability to attract backing from Stellaris and seasoned fintech founders suggests their tech has passed the initial "turing test" of sales—actually converting leads into customers. As banks look to lower CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost), Arrowhead provides a scalable alternative to the traditional call center model.