Murphy

Debt collection is still one of the most manual processes in finance: costly call centers, rigid scripts and a long tail of small-ticket debts that are not worth chasing and end up written off. Murphy, a startup based in Barcelona, is trying to replace that chain with conversational AI agents that contact borrowers in arrears, verify their identity, assess what they can afford and agree a repayment plan within limits set by the creditor. Northzone, which led the round, describes debt servicing as a global industry of more than $300 billion that is ripe for disruption. The product is an omnichannel platform. According to the company website, the voice agent has a median reply time under 0.6 seconds and works alongside WhatsApp, SMS, RCS, email and a self-service portal where the customer can review and pay the plan. A contact strategy picks timing and frequency for each person, while configurable negotiation rules define which payment options are allowed. Every call gets an automated compliance score against local regulation and the client's own rules, and each agreement stays linked to its recording. The platform connects to dialers and CRMs or runs on file exchange, and it can be deployed on the client's servers, in a private cloud or on Murphy's own infrastructure. The company was founded in 2024: the press says late 2024, and Borja Solé Fauria's Crunchbase profile gives November 2024. Solé Fauria is co-founder and CEO; according to Northzone, he lived the pain of handling thousands of micro-invoices first-hand while working as a CFO. The CTO and co-founder is Marc Sánchez, who per Northzone built large-scale communications infrastructure at Twilio. The current website also lists a third co-founder, Dmitry Zlokazov, as CPO, who does not appear in the 2025 coverage. On 14 July 2025 Murphy came out of stealth announcing $15 million (about EUR 12.8 million), made up of a $2 million pre-seed and a $13 million seed. Northzone led, with ElevenLabs, Lakestar, Seedcamp, Enzo Ventures and existing investors. The money is meant to build the product, grow the technical and go-to-market teams and expand in Europe and the United States. In its 2025 announcements the company claimed recovery rates about 40% higher and collection times 75% shorter than traditional methods, plus hundreds of millions of dollars in debt already handled for banks, telecoms, utilities and mobility companies in Europe. These are company claims, not independently verified. The 2026 website cites 14 markets, 25 languages, more than 150,000 communications a day, and hubs in London and Dubai. A blog post describes a 90-day pilot with a tier-1 Spanish bank on accounts 0 to 90 days in arrears, in which Murphy reportedly recovered 81% against 77% for the bank's own call center. That figure also comes from the company. Why it matters: Murphy is a concrete case of voice AI agents deployed in a regulated, high-volume process, where compliance, traceability and measurable results count for more than technical novelty. The main risk is that its edge depends on banks and regulators trusting an AI agent to hold the conversation with the debtor.