Beside is an AI voice startup founded by Maxime Germain and based in Paris, which spent 18 months in stealth under the name M1 before emerging publicly in November 2025 with over 20,000 paying customers and $4M in ARR. Its AI receptionist answers calls, remembers customer details, books appointments and handles follow-ups through an app that connects to a user's existing phone number, and also records and transcribes calls and meetings across Zoom, phone and in-person interactions into searchable records. Beside has raised $32M total, including a $10.5M seed led by Index Ventures and a $20M Series A led by EQT Ventures, with angels including Slack founder Stewart Butterfield.