# Deepgram Acquires Daily to Own the Voice AI Stack and Expands Enterprise Teams

**Author:** Zero G Talent
**Published:** 2026-11-09
**Category:** sales
**Tags:** yc-hiring, voice ai, speech recognition, artificial intelligence, rust, software engineering, sales

[Read on Zero G Talent](https://zerogtalent.com/blog/deepgram-acquires-daily-to-own-the-voice-ai-stack-and-expands-enterprise-teams)

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[Deepgram](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-companies/deepgram) acquired Daily, the creator of the open-source real-time orchestration framework Pipecat, to expand its infrastructure for speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and voice agents, according to [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/29/deepgram-acquires-pipecat-maker-daily-to-bolster-its-voice-ai-infrastructure/). The deal follows a $130 million Series C funding round led by AVP at a $1.3 billion valuation, reported by [Slator](https://slator.com/multilingual-ai-voice-ltp-deepgram-130m-series-c/), bringing total funding past $215 million.

Founded in 2015 out of Y Combinator's W16 batch, the San Francisco-based voice AI platform serves more than 200,000 developers and 1,400 enterprise clients. [Deepgram](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-companies/deepgram) processed over 50,000 years of audio and transcribed over one trillion words by 2024. The company is now opening an Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore under newly appointed VP and GM Sriram Ved following a strategic investment from EDBI, reported by [Yahoo Finance](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/voice-ai-infrastructure-leader-deepgram-010000763.html).

## Building Voice Infrastructure from Hardware to the Edge

[Deepgram](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-companies/deepgram) designs its speech models and inference software in-house. Its model portfolio includes Nova-3 for speech recognition, Aura-2 for speech synthesis, and the Flux model family, which handles turn detection and conversation timing directly inside recognition and synthesis engines, according to [audioXpress](https://audioxpress.com/news/deepgram-launches-flux-tts-conversation-aware-text-to-speech-model-for-voice-agents).

To manage high-volume workloads, [Deepgram](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-companies/deepgram) optimized Nova-3 on AWS Trainium2 chips by replacing standard PyTorch layers with custom kernels and building a lightweight data-parallel runtime in Rust, according to [AWS](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/machine-learning/how-deepgram-optimized-voice-ai-at-scale-with-aws-trainium/). The setup increased audio throughput per dollar by 11% to 70% compared to previous compute options.

Outside cloud environments, [Deepgram](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-companies/deepgram) delivers virtual private cloud, on-premises, and hardware-level speech setups. The company partnered with Dell Technologies to move speech models onto air-gapped, AI-enabled laptops, reported by [SiliconANGLE](https://siliconangle.com/2026/10/12/deepgram-targets-voice-ai-air-gapped-laptops-dellaileadershipsymposium/).

To build its deep learning models and custom serving runtime, the company is hiring a [Research Scientist, Voice](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/deepgram/research-scientist-voice-63170) ($150,000–$250,000, US Remote), who will own the deep learning stack, optimize model architectures for inference at scale, and design experimental programs for ASR and TTS.

## Leadership Rooted in Physics and Scaled Systems

Co-Founder and CEO [Scott Stephenson](https://zerogtalent.com/people/scott-stephenson) studied dark matter particle physics at the University of Michigan, earning a master's degree in physics before starting [Deepgram](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-companies/deepgram) to solve the challenge of searching recorded laboratory audio. He co-founded the company alongside CTO [Noah Shutty](https://zerogtalent.com/people/noah-shutty), a Stanford graduate and former Google software engineer, and CTO [Adam Sypniewski](https://zerogtalent.com/people/adam-sypniewski), who holds a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Michigan and previously conducted research at Soar Technology.

That research background shaped [Deepgram](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-companies/deepgram)'s focus on processing raw audio waveforms through end-to-end neural networks rather than traditional heuristic signal pipelines.

## Hiring Focus: Vertical Solutions and Commercial Expansion

[Deepgram](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-companies/deepgram) is expanding into specialized vertical markets, starting with physical environment AI integrations in food service. In San Francisco, the team is building backend platform infrastructure and hardware integrations through the [Software Engineer - Deepgram for Restaurants](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/deepgram/software-engineer-deepgram-for-restaurants-88497) ($150,000–$230,000, San Francisco, CA), who will design backend systems connecting machine learning models with POS, loyalty, and payment hardware. Deployments in that unit are led onsite by the [Enterprise AI Strategist, Deepgram for Restaurants](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/deepgram/enterprise-ai-strategist-deepgram-for-restaurants-88498) (San Francisco, CA), who oversees end-to-end customer execution.

To support enterprise sales across technical buyer personas, [Deepgram](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-companies/deepgram) is scaling its commercial team with remote positions. The [Corporate Account Executive](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/deepgram/corporate-account-executive-81249) ($240,000–$260,000, Remote US) will drive revenue through self-prospecting and technical platform sales, while the [Sales Development Representative](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/deepgram/sales-development-representative-78762) ($50,000–$60,000, Remote US) will prospect new opportunities with software leaders.

| Role | Location | Work Mode | Salary |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Enterprise AI Strategist, Deepgram for Restaurants](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/deepgram/enterprise-ai-strategist-deepgram-for-restaurants-88498) | San Francisco, CA | Onsite | Listed |
| [Software Engineer - Deepgram for Restaurants](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/deepgram/software-engineer-deepgram-for-restaurants-88497) | San Francisco, CA | Onsite | $150,000–$230,000 |
| [Research Scientist, Voice](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/deepgram/research-scientist-voice-63170) | US / Remote (US) | Remote | $150,000–$250,000 |
| [Corporate Account Executive](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/deepgram/corporate-account-executive-81249) | Remote / Remote (US) | Remote | $240,000–$260,000 |
| [Sales Development Representative](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/deepgram/sales-development-representative-78762) | Remote / Remote (US) | Remote | $50,000–$60,000 |

[See all open roles at Deepgram](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-companies/deepgram)

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*Source: [Zero G Talent](https://zerogtalent.com), the job board for space, defense, AI, robotics and frontier-tech companies.*