AI agents replace call centres. How the Ukrainian startup MaiCall works

In our recurring Who Are These People, Vector offers founders an opportunity to discuss their projects, covering aspects such as their products, marketing strategies, monetisation, investments, and plans. The focus this time is on MaiCall, a Ukrainian startup. This B2B SaaS platform, designed for debt management, deploys its voice AI agent to automate customer outreach in collection departments.

Vector’s editor-in-chief Yuliia Tkach interviewed Vadym Bortnyk, CEO and co-founder, about the product’s features, promotion, investments, and plans.

Conception

Founders of the startup include Vadym Bortnyk (CEO), a serial entrepreneur with extensive experience in developing collection departments in LATAM and Asia, and Oleksandr Serhunin (CTO), an expert with over 15 years in creating fintech and retail products. Their prior collaboration involved automating the Fresh Line franchise network.

Vadym spent the last three years overseeing an online management company in Mexico and Sri Lanka, where he established a call centre with 170 team members. They discussed updates and insights on AI’s progress and deployment at a meeting in November 2024. The decision to automate debt collection was made together with their technical team. «Recognising the vast potential, we saw that current technologies can entirely fulfil the demand for voice and text communications, allowing an AI collection agency to build an ethical and effective client interaction process, resulting in value for all parties. 

Many businesses currently shy away from collection agencies, citing trust as a primary concern, even though they require effective debt management and client engagement solutions for overdue accounts. Upon connecting to the service, companies first use trained AI phone agents, with a strategic roll-out of additional channels like SMS, email, WhatsApp, a Copilot for managers, and human agents to follow. 

Our mission is to establish debt collection as an ethical process, fundamentally driven by respect, transparency, empathy, and innovative technological solutions». 

The startup’s team presently has nine members, including the founders, an AI engineer, a platform development engineer, a QA specialist, a Product Owner, and a GTM specialist. In an anticipated expansion, they plan to hire a Sales Development Representative, a marketer, three new engineers, and a security specialist. 

Product and audience

Serving debt management departments, MaiCall operates as a B2B SaaS platform built around three primary components: trained voice AI agents skilled in negotiation; a debt portfolio management platform where AI constructs debtor interaction strategies and tailored debt resolution products; and a debtor portal for self-management of debt and communication. 

Vadym explains: «The voice AI agent handles up to 80% of customer communication within debt collection departments, yet it keeps conversations humane and achieves impressive results».

Businesses can use the MaiCall system to build AI agents that:

• are available for customer communication 24/7;
• operate across multiple channels (phone, SMS, WhatsApp);
• detect emotional cues and tailor their tone accordingly;
• negotiate and finalise debt settlement agreements.

This product is primarily aimed at a business audience. The startup has successfully onboarded five clients, in addition to managing four pilot programmes. «MaiCall’s solution for international fintech company SpaceCrew (OnCredit) will process 100,000 calls per month, eliminating the need for 120 new employees and yielding an annual saving of $480,000. They project an annual budget of $600,000 for voice AI to service their entire client base.

The transportation platform inDrive brought in MaiCall as well, eliminating the necessity of hiring 20 new operators. Targeting 34,000 calls each month, they project annual savings of $120,000.

In 2023, the global debt collection market stood at $30.2 billion, with $15 billion attributed to in-house solutions. MaiCall is positioning itself to lead this niche market».

Business model and marketing strategy

This B2B SaaS platform is subscription-based, charging $500 monthly per module and a per-minute fee for voice AI usage. Pricing is volume and country-dependent, typically at about $0.12 per minute. The cost of implementation and integration starts at $5,000. 

The company initiated product promotion by running LinkedIn ads in Mexico, the Netherlands, and the USA. According to Vadym, their initial clients were secured via the founders’ personal networking efforts in the fintech and collection sectors. 

Investments 

To date, the founders have invested around $70,000 of personal funds into the project, primarily for development. 

Plans

The company’s strategy involves attracting $500,000 in pre-seed investments, reaching ARR of $1 million, and scaling operations across LATAM, CEE, alongside new sectors like microfinance, medical debt, and utilities.