Acclaim, an AI-powered customer experience platform built for regulated industries, announced its formal entry into the U.S. market, backed by a previously disclosed $34 million Series A funding round. The company, formerly known as Aiphoria, is focused on deploying enterprise-grade, voice-first AI agents designed to improve customer interactions while ensuring strict regulatory compliance.
The expansion is accompanied by the appointment of Fred Fontes as CEO. Fontes brings experience from leadership roles in customer operations and applied AI, including positions at Replicant, Aera, and advisory work with Fortune 500 companies at McKinsey & Company.
Acclaim’s platform targets industries such as banking, insurance, and healthcare, where compliance, auditability, and data security are critical. Its voice-first AI agents are designed not only to handle conversations but also to execute end-to-end workflows, including resolving customer issues, managing outreach, and advancing transactions.
The company emphasizes its compliance-ready infrastructure, supporting U.S., UK, and EU regulations. Its system includes built-in safeguards to prevent off-script communication, ensure required disclosures, and maintain auditable records. The platform can be deployed on-premise or via private cloud environments to meet strict data sovereignty and security requirements.
Acclaim has already demonstrated traction through partnerships such as its work with TBC Group. By the end of 2025, TBC Uzbekistan, the group’s digital banking arm, was using AI agents to handle 90 percent of early-stage delinquency calls and approximately 100,000 monthly sales interactions.
The broader market opportunity for conversational AI continues to grow, with projections estimating the sector will exceed $31.9 billion by 2028, alongside strong growth in adjacent segments like virtual receptionist services.
In addition to its U.S. expansion, Acclaim is strengthening its international presence. The company appointed Paul Thomas as SVP of EMEA and Chris Gould as CISO to support European growth and compliance efforts. In Latin America, Fernando Bertolla has been named VP to expand regional partnerships, including early collaborations with fintech players such as Banco Plata.
Acclaim’s core differentiation lies in its goal-oriented agent logic framework, which enables AI agents to execute defined business processes rather than simply engage in conversation. The platform aims to reduce operational costs, improve efficiency, and deliver more human-like customer interactions while maintaining strict compliance standards.
KEY QUOTES
“Everyone is racing to deploy AI agents, yet no customer wakes up hoping to speak with a robot. I’m invested in Acclaim because it closes that gap. Acclaim delights customers, accelerates sales, and safeguards compliance from day one. That’s a rare and winning combination.”
Ratmir Timashev, Co-Founder of Veeam and Acclaim Advisor
“The founding team at Acclaim has built a proven platform capable of serving 50M+ users across some of the most demanding environments in financial services. Today, we take the next step in our company’s evolution, expanding to the U.S. Acclaim is poised to fill the massive market need for automating customer experience with empathy via conversational AI agents at scale.”
Fred Fontes, CEO of Acclaim
“We were pleased to work with Acclaim to support the development of our foundational AI stack. Alongside our internal team, Acclaim’s work assisted in building our Uzbek-language LLMs and Speech Tech, in what is one of Central Asia’s most ambitious AI projects. This technology powers AI agents across sales and collections that have driven efficiency gains and delivered an improved customer experience, and also underpins Lola, our proprietary AI banking assistant, which we launched in Friends and Family mode late last year and which is now being rolled out to all customers.”
Nika Kurdiani, CEO of TBC Uzbekistan
“What impressed me immediately is the engineering discipline behind the founders and the broader technical team at Acclaim. This isn’t stitched-together automation. Acclaim’s production-grade voice AI is built to operate under real compliance constraints and make a real impact on CX programs. This is critical as regional organizations face immense pressure to comply with the EU AI Act and other emerging regulations.”
Paul Thomas, SVP, EMEA at Acclaim
“Building a technology-first bank means solving hard engineering problems every day and constantly deciding which technologies are actually worth betting on. We believe that AI creates remarkable opportunities, but in a noisy sector, partners with real, specialized expertise matter more than ever. Engaging with Acclaim’s engineers has given us access to unique, deep knowledge in real-time voice processing and voice agent development that’s hard to find elsewhere.”
Andrey Shelekhin, CTO of Banco Plata
