Exclusive: Numeracle Raises $28M To Keep Legitimate Business Calls From Spam Label

McLean, Virginia-based Numeracle has secured $28 million in funding exclusively from Edison Partners. The capital is aimed at supporting companies whose legitimate phone calls are blocked or incorrectly flagged as spam by telecom carriers.

By verifying enterprises and connecting their identities to the phone numbers used to reach clients, the firm shares this verification data with carrier screening platforms to help eliminate erroneous labels.

Founder and CEO Rebekah Johnson shared in an interview that this latest investment elevates Numeracle’s aggregate funding to $34.8 million since its establishment in 2018. The prior total featured a $6.8 million Series A secured in December 2023, with Edison serving as the exclusive backer for this latest tranche. Numeracle opted not to reveal its valuation.

The enterprise maintains a staff of roughly 85 workers and serves about 4,000 business clients. Having achieved profitability this year, the milestone arrived sooner than Johnson originally anticipated.

Numeracle intends to allocate the fresh funds toward workforce expansion and international growth. Additionally, the organization aims to adapt its business vetting solutions beyond traditional phone conversations, eyeing applications in messaging, chat platforms, marketplaces, and AI agents, according to Johnson.

This growth coincides with organizations navigating two overlapping challenges: fraudsters increasingly mimicking legitimate entities, and automated call-screening mechanisms accidentally blocking genuine outreach.

Consequently, a patient might overlook a hospital’s important phone call regarding an upcoming procedure, or a bank client might decline an authentic outreach due to a fraud warning appearing on the screen.

Numeracle operates on an annual subscription model to track and resolve inaccurate spam tags. Clients may also opt for a per-call charge to display their corporate logo, name, and calling purpose directly on the recipient’s mobile screen.

From a regulatory warning to a company

An engineer previously focused on regulatory compliance at telecom operator West, Johnson noted she first identified the issue while taking part in the Federal Communications Commission’s Robocall Strike Force back in 2016.

She cautioned telecom providers that their initiatives to filter unwanted calls would inadvertently disrupt legitimate enterprises because the screening tools lacked context regarding the identity of the callers.

Roughly three months later, a carrier’s federal regulatory counsel reached out by phone while she was standing in her parents’ kitchen.

“Everything you said was going to happen is happening. What do we do?” she recalled him asking.

That discussion ultimately inspired Johnson to launch Numeracle.

At the time, she was a newly single mother who had recently lost her job, investing her personal savings to launch the enterprise. Residing on a farm in Grand Bay, Alabama, devoid of internet service, she operated out of local cafes.

“When you need to feed your children and provide a roof over their head, you’re going to count every penny,” Johnson stated.

That background influenced her fiscal strategy as Numeracle scaled, operating independently for several years prior to securing its Series A round.

Johnson mentioned that nearly 90% of Numeracle’s sales leads arrive via organic inbound channels. Armed with the new capital, she intends to ramp up targeted marketing expenditures geared toward specific verticals like healthcare.

The firm’s client roster also spans financial services, higher education, home services, charities, and government agencies, though Johnson chose not to name specific accounts.

Verifying increasingly convincing fakes

Numeracle initiates the process by confirming a business is legitimate and performs its stated functions. Upon clearing those checks, the venture connects the business to its designated phone numbers, relaying those details to the screening systems utilized by carriers to flag or drop calls.

Outside organizations can likewise compensate Numeracle to execute these vetting procedures on prospective corporate customers.

Johnson pointed out that Numeracle developed proprietary vetting systems because pre-existing solutions fell short of necessary thoroughness. Bad actors possess a strong motivation to clear these hurdles, knowing that a Numeracle endorsement decreases the likelihood of their calls triggering spam filters.

Artificial intelligence has complicated the task of distinguishing legitimate organizations from fraudulent ones, she noted. Numeracle has encountered fabricated businesses complete with state registrations, employer identification numbers, and fictitious personnel featuring active LinkedIn accounts.

“The scary part for me isn’t necessarily the AI voices,” Johnson explained. “It’s actually AI-built businesses.”

She noted that Numeracle leverages AI systems to help detect these deceptions, though she refrained from detailing the precise mechanics.

Numeracle currently maintains operations inside the United States. Inbound interest originating from Europe has spurred the enterprise to advance its global footprint, with a portion of the fresh capital supporting that push.

The broader question moving forward is whether enterprises will pay to employ its validation protocols across alternative communication channels. For the present, the company’s core operations address a more urgent challenge — ensuring customers recognize an authentic phone call.

Investor POV: ‘Doing more with less’

For Lenard Marcus, a general partner at Edison Partners, Johnson’s engineering and telecom background served as a primary catalyst for the investment. He noted in an interview that her deep industry fluency enabled her to engineer the solution while cultivating vital enterprise relationships.

He was equally impressed by what Numeracle achieved on minimal funding, labeling Johnson as “someone who was frankly doing more with less.”

Conversations with customers helped cement the investment thesis. Marcus highlighted one contact center operator reporting that Numeracle boosted answered calls from 19,000 up to 22,000 out of a monthly pool of 40,000. For operations trying to connect with prospects, such volume improvements can translate directly into revenue growth.

Marcus also suggests that Johnson’s extensive telecom tenure grants Numeracle an edge over newer rivals. Aside from grasping the mechanics of the broader industry ecosystem, Johnson has leveraged those connections to pitch major corporations, he stated.

“She’s sales. She’s engineering, and she’s just a very, very good leader,” Marcus added.

Looking ahead, the investor anticipates robust demand across finance, retail, home services, and healthcare, particularly as AI broadens the scope of corporate impersonation.

“This is a communications problem, not one for one industry,” he stated.

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?Frequently Asked Questions

01What does Numeracle do?

Numeracle verifies legitimate businesses and links their corporate identities to the phone numbers they use, sharing that data with carrier screening systems to prevent calls from being incorrectly labeled as spam or blocked.

02How much funding has Numeracle raised?

The company has raised a total of $34.8 million since its inception in 2018, which includes a recent $28 million round led exclusively by Edison Partners and a prior $6.8 million Series A raised in December 2023.

03Why did Rebekah Johnson start Numeracle?

After warning telecom regulators in 2016 that spam-blocking initiatives would inadvertently impact legitimate businesses, Johnson was later contacted by a regulatory counsel asking for a solution, prompting her to launch the venture.

04What services does Numeracle offer businesses?

Numeracle provides an annual subscription to monitor and resolve incorrect spam labels, alongside a per-call option that displays the business’s name, logo, and reason for calling on the recipient’s screen.

Illustration: Dom Guzman