Othello Raises $8 Million for AI Coaching During Live Sales Calls
Othello, an applied AI lab building models for live sales calls, has raised $8 million in seed funding from a16z speedrun, Owl Capital and Long Journey Ventures. The company says its proprietary Hamlet model delivers coaching suggestions to sales reps in under 500 milliseconds while a buyer is still on the line.
- Othello raised $8 million in seed funding from a16z speedrun, Owl Capital and Long Journey Ventures.
- Its proprietary Hamlet model gives live call suggestions in under 500 milliseconds, according to the company.
- A desktop app shows pop-ups over any video or dialer platform without joining as a participant.
- Othello says it is deployed at over 50 large enterprises, including Microsoft, Capital One and Lyft.
- The company claims reps use it on 95% or more of their calls.
Seed round and investors
Othello announced the $8 million seed round on Oct. 14, 2026. The lead institutional backers named in the release are a16z speedrun, Owl Capital and Long Journey Ventures. The company is headquartered in New York.
A number of angel investors also took part. They include DoorDash co-founder Andy Fang, Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen, Hugging Face co-founder Thomas Wolf, Sentry co-founder David Cramer, Writer co-founder Waseem AlShikh, Axonius co-founder Dean Sysman, Deel co-founders Alex and Philippe Bouaziz and TransDigm CEO Kevin Stein.
How the in-call coaching works
Othello runs on Hamlet, a proprietary model built specifically for live sales calls. According to the company, a desktop app starts when a call begins and shows live pop-ups in any online meeting, without joining as a participant. The pop-ups appear above any dialer or video calling platform.
During a call, the product delivers live suggestions and meeting prompts that tell reps:
- What discovery question to ask next
- Which MEDDPICC, Challenger or playbook steps they have missed
- How to answer product and technical questions
- How to handle objections
- How to stand out against competitors
- Which case study to share
- When the buyer is ready to move forward
Jared Zelman, co-founder and CEO, argued that existing tools miss the call itself. "There is a ton of technology before the conversation and way too much after it ends, but not a single tool that affects how you perform during the call," he said. He added: "The only way to give smart recommendations in real time, with the full context of a deal, is to train AI models just for that."
The release also cites a Gartner prediction that by 2028, 60% of B2B seller work will be executed through conversational user interfaces, up from less than 5% in 2023.
Customers and adoption claims
Othello says it is deployed at over 50 large enterprises, including several Fortune 500 companies, and that it adds several new multinational enterprise customers weekly. Named customers include Microsoft, Capital One and Lyft, as well as a top 10 accounting firm and a top 10 asset manager.
The company lists customers in insurance, accounting, financial services, asset management, enterprise software, cybersecurity, healthcare, manufacturing and professional services. It also states that licensed reps adopt the product within a week of downloading the app, and that reps use it on 95% or more of their calls. These figures come from the company itself and the release does not describe how they were measured.
What it means for sales teams
Most sales software, as Othello frames it, focuses on preparation before a conversation or analysis after it. Othello is positioning itself in the gap during the call, using a purpose-built model rather than a general-purpose one. Because the app works as an overlay and does not join as a participant, it can be used across different calling and meeting platforms.
The seed funding gives the company capital to expand its customer base. Interested teams can request a demo through othello.ai.
PR Newswire: Othello Raises $8 Million for Real-Time AI Sales Coaching During Live Calls
