Helix, a startup focused on voice-based identity verification, has secured $6 million in a funding round led by Chicago Ventures. The round included participation from BAM Ventures, Aglaé Ventures, Corazon Capital, Tusk Ventures, Yonder Ventures, Rule30, and the Brown Alumni Group.
Founded in 2025 by Alex Oberg, Anna Dorofiyenko, and Mike Hall, the company develops technology that runs locally on devices to verify human identity and estimate age. The solution is designed to replace or supplement traditional methods like CAPTCHA and mitigate bot attacks.
The startup's technology is currently utilized by Zeel, an in-home healthcare provider, to verify the identities of staff members. Helix is also exploring use cases such as verifying cab drivers and providing age-verification tools that do not require users to share sensitive personal data.
Dag Kittlaus, co-founder of Siri, has joined the company as an advisor and investor. He noted that the ability of Helix to run compressed models locally on devices, such as an iPhone 13, provides a significant cost advantage for scaling the technology.
The company clarified that its current technology cannot reliably detect lies or identify individual speakers. Additionally, Helix stated that its models are not yet capable of detecting AI agents during live phone calls, though it is researching voice-based biomarkers for conditions like distress.
