Aurelian, a startup originally focused on automating salon bookings, has shifted its mission to solving one of the most critical issues in public safety: overburdened 911 call centers. The company announced that it has raised a $14 million Series A funding round led by NEA to expand its AI-powered voice assistant for emergency dispatch centers.
The pivot came after founder Max Keenan noticed how long wait times on non-emergency lines were impacting communities. On researching further, he found that non-emergency calls such as parking violations, noise complaints, or stolen wallet reports are often managed by the same dispatchers handling urgent 911 emergencies.
Aurelian’s AI system is designed to take on these non-emergency calls, easing the load on dispatchers. The voice agent collects key details, creates reports, and forwards information directly to police departments. It is also trained to immediately transfer genuine emergency calls to human operators.
Since its launch in May 2024, Aurelian’s solution has been deployed at more than a dozen dispatch centers across the United States, including Snohomish County in Washington, Chattanooga in Tennessee, and Kalamazoo in Michigan. According to Keenan, the aim is not to replace existing staff but to reduce overwhelming workloads in an industry known for high stress and high turnover. Emergency dispatchers often face 12 to 16-hour shifts, and the profession ranks among the highest in employee attrition.
“The reason why we are most focused on 911 is because it is the industry that has this pain point most acutely,” Keenan said. “We think that these telecommunicators should have a chance of taking a break or go to the bathroom.”
NEA partner Mustafa Neemuchwala added, “One of the things that blows my mind, you are not replacing an existing human being; you are replacing a person they wanted to hire but could not.”
Aurelian is not the only company targeting this space, with startups like Hyper and Prepared also entering the market. However, Aurelian claims it is the only one already deployed and managing thousands of live calls daily. As Neemuchwala explained, “As far as we know, nobody else is actually live.”
With fresh funding, Aurelian plans to continue scaling its technology to help understaffed call centers improve response times and reduce pressure on emergency workers.
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