Twilio Unveils the 20 Honorees of its Third Annual AI Startup Searchlight Awards
Honorees Selected From Record 750+ Applicants for Transforming Industries with AI-Powered Solutions Built on Twilio's Platform
Twilio (NYSE:TWLO), the customer engagement platform that drives real-time, personalized experiences for today's leading brands, today announced the honorees of its third annual AI Startup Searchlight Awards at SIGNAL London 2025. From over 750 applications, Twilio selected 20 exceptional startups that exemplify how emerging technologies combined with Twilio's platform can transform industries.
Twilio's AI Startup Searchlight Award program recognizes startups who are using the Twilio platform to build AI-powered experiences that drive amazing customer engagement at scale. The honorees represent a broad range of industries including customer support, e-commerce, financial services, healthcare, hospitality, insurance, and more, showcasing the universal applicability of AI-powered communications. Winners were selected by a judging panel including representatives from Twilio, Andreessen Horowitz, OpenAI, and IDC.
"These 20 honorees showcase the growing number of AI startups choosing Twilio as the essential communication engine behind their innovation," said Mark Simms, Chief Technology Officer at Twilio. "What makes this possible is Twilio's unique platform that brings together three essential capabilities: multi-channel communications, contextual data, and AI-driven orchestration that turns every interaction into an engaging conversation. With these seamlessly integrated across the entire customer journey, we're enabling a new generation of builders to create amazing customer engagement experiences that were impossible just a few years ago."
"What stands out about these startups is how they're making AI feel personal and useful in everyday interactions," said Olivia Moore, Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. "They're leveraging reliable communication platforms that provide the backbone for global scale, so they can focus on innovation and user experience."
Meet the 2025 AI Startup Searchlight Honorees
The 20 selected startups demonstrate the breadth of what's possible when builders have the freedom to create amazing customer engagement experiences with Twilio's platform:
- AI Shift: Bringing 24/7 intelligent voice agents to Japanese contact centers using Twilio's Programmable Voice to provide robust, scalable telecommunications infrastructure, demonstrating Twilio's global reach across 180+ countries.
- CareForce AI: Deploying autonomous AI workers "Angelica" and "David" to schedule healthcare appointments in 20+ languages through Twilio Voice and Messaging, demonstrating smart engagement at scale with HIPAA-compliant communications.
- Cartesia AI: Setting new standards for ultra-realistic voice AI with pioneering State Space Model architecture, with every line agent provisioned through Twilio's scalable Voice API platform and exploring Elastic SIP Trunking for expanded enterprise connectivity.
- Cekura: Y Combinator-backed automated testing platform using AI to test AI, simulating thousands of calls to ensure reliability, built on Twilio Voice's 99.999% API availability to enable parallel testing at scale.
- ConsioAI: Pioneering AI phone sales for e-commerce with Twilio Voice for outbound/inbound calling, Answering Machine Detection, call recording, and WebRTC, transforming voice into a revenue channel with developer-friendly APIs.
- Curans: Training medical students in Jordan with AI patient simulators delivered omnichannel through Twilio Voice, WhatsApp, and SMS, with SendGrid for reports and Verify for secure logins, leveraging Twilio's flexibility to work anywhere, on any device, even in low-bandwidth settings.
- Genspark: Breaking barriers between digital and physical worlds with AI agents making real calls for 2M+ users globally, powered by Twilio's Voice API for telecommunications infrastructure and SMS for secure user authentication.
- HoloMD: Supporting mental health with continuous AI engagement between visits through Twilio's HIPAA-eligible SMS channel, and SendGrid powering onboarding and educational content delivery.
- Insight Health AI: Automating 50% of routine clinical work with AI conducting 200,000+ patient conversations, powered by Twilio's HIPAA-eligible Voice and Messaging infrastructure, with Segment driving their product-led growth motion.
- Loman AI: Revolutionizing restaurant operations with 24/7 AI voice agents that remember customer preferences, powered by Twilio's secure Voice API, SIP Trunking, Phone Numbers, Twilio Pay for payments, and SMS for order confirmations, with SendGrid for operational emails.
- Mecanizou: Digitizing Brazil's $10B auto parts market with AI-powered commerce using Twilio's WhatsApp Business API and customized Flex instance with AI Assistant, plus Segment for customer data, showcasing Twilio's ability to meet customers in their preferred channels.
- Neru Health: Improving medical device therapy adherence by 10-20% with 24/7 AI support through Twilio Voice for AI hotlines and Messaging for appointment reminders and therapy adherence support, demonstrating how contextual engagement drives better outcomes for 10k+ patients.
- Nooks: Doubling sales pipeline efficiency with AI-powered calling, leveraging Twilio's Voice API, Media Streams for real-time audio processing, Actions for dial trees and voicemails, and Conferences for seamless agent handoffs.
- OhMD: Simplifying healthcare administrative tasks for 1,200+ medical practices with AI agent "Nia," automating routine appointment scheduling and medication refill requests through Twilio's comprehensive suite including Programmable Messaging, RCS, Voice, Video, Studio for automation workflows, Conversation Relay for call automation, with SendGrid for operational communications and Segment for analytics and engagement insights.
- Phonely: Achieving 99.2% accuracy in AI-human conversations with ultra-low latency, showcasing how Twilio's Voice, SIP integration, SMS messaging, and conference call capabilities enable trust at scale for voice AI.
- R2: Democratizing financial access for Latin American SMBs with AI credit services and 200,000 pre-approved credit offers representing $200M in available credit, using Twilio's WhatsApp API for customer engagement and SendGrid for communication workflows, with AI agent "Rita" reducing support tickets 59%.
- Strada: Making insurance accessible with AI agents handling customer service and claims 24/7, built on Twilio's Programmable Voice API for inbound/outbound calls, Answering Machine Detection for optimized retries, and Messaging API for evidence collection.
- Subbyx: Transforming device subscriptions in Italy with AI agent "Rosie" for customer care and "Sublime" digital assistant managing the entire customer journey through Twilio's WhatsApp and SMS for onboarding and lifecycle management, Verify for authentication, Lookup for carrier identification, and SendGrid for branded email communications.
- Vozy: Transforming customer service across Latin America with 300+ AI agents handling 200M+ omnichannel interactions, seamlessly integrated through Twilio Messaging (WhatsApp, RCS, SMS), Voice (IVR, calling), Flex for human agent handoffs, and AI Tools (Conversational Intelligence, Conversation Relay).
- Wispr Flow: Replacing keyboards with voice for millions of users, with the median user relying on voice for 72% of their laptop input, using Twilio for SMS-based authentication and download links, SendGrid for email marketing automation, and Segment as the analytics backbone.
The judging panel included Twilio executives CTO Mark Simms, CMO Chris Koehler, VP of Group Architecture Zachary Hanif, VP of R&D for Emerging Technologies Rikki Singh, and VP of Engineering for Voice & Video Pat Hession, alongside external judges AI Partner at Andreessen Horowitz Olivia Moore, Head of Startups at OpenAI Marc Manara, Go-to-Market Account Director at OpenAI Charles Wang, and Research VP, Worldwide Telecommunications at IDC Courtney Munroe.
Each honoree will receive up to $10,000 in Twilio credits, $2,500 in OpenAI API credits, and a $5,000 gift card, along with exclusive access to a 1:1 session with Twilio Ventures.
For more information about the AI Startup Searchlight Awards, visit: https://www.twilio.com/en-us/lp/twilio-ai-startup-searchlight-2025
About Twilio
Today's leading companies trust Twilio's Customer Engagement Platform (CEP) to build direct, personalized relationships with their customers everywhere in the world. Twilio enables companies to use communications and data to add intelligence and security to every step of the customer journey, from sales to marketing to growth, customer service and many more engagement use cases in a flexible, programmatic way. Across 180 countries, millions of developers and hundreds of thousands of businesses use Twilio to create magical experiences for their customers. For more information about Twilio (NYSE:TWLO), visit: www.twilio.com.
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