Clearspeed Raises $60 Million to Bring Battlefield Voice Tech to Finance and Security

A voice analysis company that started by catching liars in war zones just raised $60 million to expand into insurance and banking. Clearspeed reads vocal stress patterns to flag fraud and security risks without listening to what people actually say.

The San Diego startup analyzes tone, cadence, and hesitation patterns that appear across all languages and cultures. Think of it as a lie detector that works through any phone call, in any language, in real time.

Former CIA Director David Petraeus joined the funding round as a multi-round investor. Align Private Capital led the Series D, with backing from IronGate Capital, Bravo Victor Venture Capital, and KBW Ventures. The round brings Clearspeed's total funding to $110 million since its 2016 founding.

From Battlefield to Boardroom

CEO Alex Martin, a Marine Corps reserve lieutenant colonel, built the technology initially for the Department of Defense. Traditional polygraphs don't work in war zones. Clearspeed's voice analysis fills that gap by detecting stress and deception indicators in real time during phone calls or interviews.

The company now operates in 37 countries and supports more than 60 languages. Its voice engine identifies what Martin calls "universal human vocal characteristics" - stress patterns that appear regardless of what language someone speaks or what they're saying.

Insurance Companies Cut Fraud in Half

Insurance companies use Clearspeed during claims calls to flag potentially fraudulent cases. The system can clear low-risk claims automatically while sending suspicious ones for further review.

Zurich Insurance, which serves 75 million customers across 200 countries, reports faster claim payments after implementing Clearspeed. The technology helps insurers cut claims handling time in half and increase instant payouts by 40%, according to company data.

Scott Clayton, Zurich's head of claims fraud, calls Clearspeed "a powerful complement to an insurer's multi-layered global risk strategy." The system builds trust with customers while helping detect increasingly complex fraud schemes.

Clearspeed claims its insurance clients see more than 30-fold returns on investment. The technology works early in the customer journey - during claims, underwriting, or onboarding calls - to separate low-risk interactions from potentially risky ones.

Government Agencies Speed Up Security Screening

Defense and government agencies use Clearspeed for personnel vetting, insider threat detection, and security clearance screening. The company reports that agencies see a 95% reduction in vetting cycle time and 65% drop in investigation costs.

The technology addresses a persistent challenge in national security: how to screen people quickly without sacrificing accuracy. Traditional background checks take months. Clearspeed's voice analysis provides risk indicators in seconds.

"As security threats evolve, so must the solutions designed to counter them," Petraeus said. "Clearspeed's AI-enabled voice analytics delivers outsized value for personnel vetting, insider threat mitigation, and enterprise security - where building trust quickly is paramount."

Banking Joins the Voice Revolution

Financial institutions now represent Clearspeed's newest growth area. Banks face both professional fraud rings and opportunistic scammers. The voice technology helps detect both by analyzing stress patterns during customer calls.

Martin sees banking as a natural fit. "You have to compromise between how fast you move through screening process or claims process and how much accuracy or fidelity you want to fight the fraud," he said. Banks process thousands of transactions daily while trying to catch fraudsters who adapt constantly.

Trust Infrastructure for a Voice-First World

Martin positions Clearspeed as building "trust infrastructure" for sectors where failure carries high costs. As more interactions move to voice interfaces - from Siri to customer service calls - the need for real-time risk assessment grows.

"While technology has this exponential growth curve of innovation, there is a gap, because human nature remains the same," Martin explained. "The human being will remain unchanged. They still may decide to make a bad decision and commit fraud."

The company's Express version delivers risk scores through cloud APIs or phone systems without disrupting existing workflows. Organizations get real-time alerts during live conversations to help them make faster decisions about whom to trust.

Expansion Plans Target UK First

Clearspeed plans to double revenue annually for the next three years. The company will nearly double its 72-person workforce within two years, focusing on mission-aligned hires rather than just scaling numbers.

Martin sees the UK as easier to crack than the US market. British insurers embrace innovation more readily, while US companies tend toward caution. "They kind of invented insurance," Martin said of UK firms. "They have a sense of pride and ownership, but they also are willing to take a little bit more risk for their customers."

The funding will fuel expansion into new geographies and industries where trust matters most. Anna Nekoranec, Align Private Capital's co-founder and CEO, joins Clearspeed's board as part of the deal.

"It's rare to see a solution that can reduce fraud, mitigate security threats, and save significant costs without creating friction for the end user," Nekoranec said. "This is the innovation needed to build smarter, more human-centered systems of trust."

The company's technology has evolved from taking hours to deliver results to providing answers in seconds. Martin's team now works toward near real-time analysis that can flag risks during live conversations.

Why this matters:

• Voice interactions will dominate the future, but current AI systems lack real-time risk filters - Clearspeed fills that gap by reading human stress patterns that remain constant across cultures and languages.
• The technology solves an ancient trade-off between speed and security, letting organizations move fast while catching bad actors who don't show up in historical data or behavioral patterns.