Uzbek startup Speko launched on Product Hunt

Beknazar Abdikamalov, a founder from Uzbekistan accepted into Y Combinator, launched his startup Speko on the Product Hunt platform.

Speko builds infrastructure for Voice AI and helps developers choose the most effective AI voice providers depending on the language and use case.

Through a single API, the platform determines the optimal combination of Speech-to-Text, LLM, and Text-to-Speech models. Speko regularly tests new models based on metrics such as Word Error Rate, latency, Time to First Token, and cost per minute. Benchmark results are published openly at benchmarks.speko.ai.

If another model starts showing better results, the system automatically changes routing, so developers don't need to rewrite their integration. In case of a failure of one of the providers, Speko can also switch to a backup option in less than 500 milliseconds.

Beknazar Abdikamalov, founder of speko.ai

The idea for Speko came from Abdikamalov's experience at Hupo, where he was co-founder and CTO for four years. The company raised $14 million and developed Voice AI solutions for projects with Morgan Stanley, Prudential, HSBC, and Grab in multiple languages.

The team had to manually compare speech models for each new market, and this experience became the foundation for creating Speko.

Previously, Beknazar Abdikamalov worked as a software engineer at Amazon and was one of the first engineers at Tridge. He was accepted into Y Combinator on his fourth attempt and became the first solo founder from Uzbekistan to pass the accelerator.

Speko was founded in San Francisco in 2026. Currently, the startup's team includes four engineers from Central Asia.