# Nikola Mrkšić

> Nikola Mrkšić is the co-founder and CEO of PolyAI, a voice AI company building enterprise-grade conversational agents that handle customer service calls so naturally that callers sometimes apologize mid-sentence for being rude to what they assume is a person. Born in Belgrade in 1991, Mrkšić earned a full scholarship to Cambridge, completed a PhD on spoken dialogue systems, co-built VocalIQ before Apple acquired it, and then founded PolyAI in 2017 with two Cambridge lab colleagues. The company has raised $206M across four rounds - most recently an $86M Series D in December 2025 at a $750M valuation - and its voice agents now handle calls for Marriott, FedEx, Caesars Entertainment, and over 200 enterprise customers across 45+ languages in 25+ countries.

- **Role:** Co-founder & CEO at PolyAI
- **Organizations:** PolyAI, University of Cambridge, VocalIQ, Apple, Institute for International Relations (IVI) Advisory Board
- **From:** Belgrade, Serbia
- **Nationality:** Serbian
- **Education:** PhD, Computer Science (Spoken Dialogue Systems / NLP), University of Cambridge, MSc, Computer Science, University of Cambridge, BA, Computer Science, University of Cambridge, Secondary Education, Belgrade Mathematical Gymnasium
- **Known for:** Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe 2021 (Technology category), Raised $206M+ across 4 funding rounds for PolyAI, reaching $750M valuation, PhD dissertation: 'Data-driven language understanding for spoken dialogue systems' at Cambridge

## Career timeline

- **1991** — Born in Belgrade, Serbia
- **2011** — Began studies at University of Cambridge on full scholarship, studying under Prof. Steve Young and influenced by Prof. Zoubin Ghahramani
- **2011-2015** — First technical hire at VocalIQ, a Cambridge spinoff working on real-world dialogue models for voice technology
- **2015** — Apple acquires VocalIQ; Mrkšić joins Apple to work on Siri
- **2015-2017** — Worked on Apple's Siri team making the assistant more conversational
- **2017** — Co-founded PolyAI in London with Cambridge colleagues Tsung-Hsien Wen (CTO) and Pei-Hao Su (SVP Engineering)
- **2021** — PolyAI closes Series A led by Khosla Ventures; Mrkšić named Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe (Technology)
- **2022** — PolyAI raises $40M Series B led by Georgian, reaching $70M total funding and ~$300M valuation
- **2024** — PolyAI raises $50M Series C led by Hedosophia with NVIDIA's NVentures; valuation reaches ~$500M
- **2025** — PolyAI launches Agent Studio (April); raises $86M Series D (December) at $750M valuation, total funding surpasses $206M
- **2026** — PolyAI surpasses 200 enterprise customers and wins Gold at 2026 Stevie Awards for Best Customer Support Solution

## Achievements

- Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe 2021 (Technology category)
- Raised $206M+ across 4 funding rounds for PolyAI, reaching $750M valuation
- PhD dissertation: 'Data-driven language understanding for spoken dialogue systems' at Cambridge
- First technical hire and engineer at VocalIQ before Apple acquisition (2015)
- Google Scholar citations: 7,477+ researchers have cited his academic work
- PolyAI handles 151 years worth of customer calls in a single year (2025)
- Built platform operating in 45+ languages across 25+ countries
- 2026 Stevie Awards - Gold for Best Customer Service/Support Solution
- Named to advisory board of Institute for International Relations (IVI), Serbia
- Led PolyAI to 200+ enterprise customers including Marriott, FedEx, Caesars Entertainment

## Latest updates

- **2026-03** — PolyAI wins Gold at 2026 Stevie Awards for Best Customer Support Solution; company surpasses 200 enterprise customers
- **2025-12** — PolyAI closes $86M Series D at $750M valuation, co-led by Georgian, Hedosophia, and Khosla Ventures
- **2025-04** — PolyAI launches Agent Studio, a voice-first omnichannel platform for building enterprise conversational AI agents

## Links

- Website: https://poly.ai
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikola-mrk%c5%a1i%c4%87-80b64528
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/polyaivoice
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PolyAIVoice

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/nikola-mrksic
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-24