SLNG.ai, or SLNG, the speech infrastructure startup building the first radically global platform for voice AI, today announced it has raised $3.9 million in pre-seed funding to challenge the US-centric voice technology ecosystem that has left billions of users worldwide in digital silence.
The round, led by Earlybird VC, will accelerate SLNG's mission to restore the universal power of voice by providing developers, startups, and enterprises with a unified platform that integrates multiple speech models, supports true global deployment with regional compliance, and eliminates the barriers that have kept voice technology concentrated in a handful of languages and markets.
Spain-based SLNG was founded by Ismael Ordaz and Luke Miller after spotting the same pattern globally: companies struggling with 1) lack of regional compute, 2) missing industry-specific models, 3) compliance barriers, and 4) latency issues. SLNG solves all four.
According to Luke Miller, CEO and Co-founder of SLNG, “We're not just building another voice AI platform, we are rethinking the entire ecosystem to be developer first, truly global and compliant."
The Global Voice Gap
SLNG aims to solve fundamental limitations of current voice AI infrastructure. Most platforms optimize primarily for premium languages like English, Spanish, and French, leaving other languages/dialects as afterthoughts. High latency and data residency issues entangle deployment in many non-US centric regions. Developers are forced into single-provider ecosystems with limited flexibility in terms of cost and model testing. Lastly, regulated industries can't deploy voice AI products due to data sovereignty requirements that existing platforms simply can't meet.
SLNG's Radical Approach
Unlike traditional speech AI providers, SLNG offers a model-agnostic platform where developers integrate any speech-to-text, text-to-speech, or voice cloning model through a single API. This fuels a truly global deployment through regional infrastructure and ensures low latency and compliance worldwide. The company's open ecosystem approach lets developers combine open-source and proprietary models without vendor lock-in, while developer-first design delivers SDKs and APIs built for rapid integration. This avoids months-long implementations, giving developers unprecedented flexibility in building voice-enabled applications.
The platform already supports deployment across over 20 regions, enabling companies in regulated industries, like healthcare, finance, and government, to finally deploy voice AI while meeting strict data residency requirements.
“What excites us about SLNG is the audacity of their mission: to make voice AI universal, compliant, and developer-first from day one. Luke and the team are not just building a product - they’re building the missing infrastructure for a truly global voice ecosystem. We believe SLNG can define the next era of speech technology, “ added Akash Bajwa, Principal at Earlybird VC.
The founding duo brings the right mix: deep product and go-to-market firepower. Ismael leads product and engineering, while Luke scales GTM like he did at companies like npm and Vercel. They've built a lean, multidisciplinary team uniquely equipped to tackle global speech AI. Having seen speech AI break beyond US borders: models failing on dialects, compliance blocking markets and costs spiraling out of control, they built SLNG to unmute the world: radically global voice infrastructure that actually works everywhere.