ThinnestAI × Deepgram: Accepted into the Deepgram Startup Program
A Partnership Built on Voice AI Innovation
Today, we're excited to share that Thinnest AI has been accepted into the Deepgram Startup Program — a milestone that validates our mission to build India's most capable voice AI platform.
Deepgram is the gold standard in speech AI. Their models power voice experiences for thousands of companies worldwide, from real-time transcription to conversational AI agents. Being accepted into their startup program means we now have direct access to their latest models, dedicated technical support, and a partnership that accelerates everything we're building.
Why Deepgram?
When we set out to build Thinnest AI, we evaluated every major speech provider — Google, AWS, Azure, AssemblyAI, and Deepgram. Here's why Deepgram won:
1. Nova-3: Best-in-Class Multilingual STT
Deepgram's Nova-3 model delivers a 54% reduction in word error rate compared to competitors. For our Indian language users, this is transformative — Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, and 30+ other languages are supported natively with industry-leading accuracy.
Nova-3 also supports real-time multilingual code-switching — meaning when a user switches between Hindi and English mid-sentence (as most Indians naturally do), the model handles it seamlessly without manual language detection.
2. Flux: Built for Voice Agents
Deepgram's Flux model is the first conversational speech recognition model built specifically for voice agents. Unlike traditional STT that passively transcribes, Flux understands conversational flow and automatically handles turn-taking — knowing when to listen, when to think, and when to speak.
This eliminates the need for separate Voice Activity Detection (VAD) models, reducing our pipeline complexity and cutting end-to-end latency by up to 200ms.
3. Aura-2: Natural TTS at Scale
For English voice agents, Deepgram's Aura-2 TTS delivers natural-sounding speech with the lowest time-to-first-byte in the industry. Combined with our Cartesia integration for Indian languages and Aero TTS for cost-effective use cases, our users have access to 500+ voices across every major language.
What This Means for Our Users
The Deepgram Startup Program isn't just a badge — it directly improves the voice AI experience for every Thinnest AI user:
- Faster response times: Flux's native turn detection reduces the delay between user speech and agent response
- Better Hindi accuracy: Nova-3's multilingual model understands Hinglish code-switching natively
- More natural voices: Aura-2 TTS for English agents sounds indistinguishable from human speech
- Lower costs: Enterprise-tier API access means we can offer better quality without raising prices
- 36+ languages: Nova-3 supports Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam, and dozens more
Our Voice AI Stack
With Deepgram now at the core of our speech pipeline, here's how the full Thinnest AI voice stack looks:
| Component | Provider | Model |
|---|---|---|
| English STT (Agents) | Deepgram | Flux General |
| Multilingual STT | Deepgram | Nova-3 |
| Indian Language STT | Deepgram + Sarvam | Nova-3 / Saarika v2.5 |
| English TTS | Deepgram | Aura-2 |
| Indian Language TTS | Cartesia / Sarvam | Sonic-2 / Bulbul v3 |
| Budget TTS | Aero TTS (in-house) | Aero Mini/Nano |
| LLM | OpenAI / Sarvam | GPT-4o-mini / Sarvam-105B |
| Turn Detection | Deepgram | Flux (native) / Silero VAD |
What We're Building Next
With Deepgram's support, we're accelerating development on several fronts:
- Sub-500ms end-to-end latency for all voice agents using Flux + GPT-4o-mini + Aura-2
- Real-time multilingual agents that switch between Hindi, English, and regional languages mid-conversation
- Voice SDK (
@thinnest-ai/voice-sdk) — a simple JavaScript SDK for developers to add voice AI to any web app in 5 lines of code - Campaign automation with KYC-verified bulk calling for appointment reminders, lead qualification, and collections
Try It Yourself
Want to experience the Deepgram-powered voice stack? Try our live demo — no signup required. Talk to an AI agent in Hindi, English, or Tamil and hear the difference.
Or sign up for free and build your own voice agent in minutes:
25 free voice minutes • 200 chat messages • No credit card required
Thank You, Deepgram
We're grateful to the Deepgram team for believing in our vision of making voice AI accessible to every business in India. This partnership is just the beginning — and we can't wait to show what we build together.
— The Thinnest AI Team