A Raleigh startup that makes smart walkie-talkies for frontline workers has raised $36 million in a funding round led by an industrial manufacturing giant, and it's using the cash to push its technology from hotel hallways onto factory floors. Relay, which builds internet-connected communication devices for workers who don't sit at desks, told investors the new capital will fund next-generation hardware built for settings like factories.
The round was led by International Paper Co., with participation from wealth management firm Cerity Partners Ventures and existing backer G2 Venture Partners, according to Axios. The raise brings Relay's total funding to more than $90 million since it was founded in 2015, and PitchBook pegs the company's last valuation at $369 million, per the same report. Relay CEO Chris Chuang said the extra capital is meant to help the company push into AI capabilities and expand what its hardware can do for workers who have historically been left out of enterprise software.
Chuang has been blunt about who Relay is really trying to dethrone. It took a long time and a lot of money to build something that could compete with Motorola, who quietly, he said, has a monopoly on the frontline communication industry, according to Axios. He added that Relay could be a device that connects frontline workers to the cloud and serves as a vehicle for software and AI, a framing that puts the company's ambitions well beyond simple push-to-talk radios.
From a Republic Wireless Spinout to a Cloud Communications Player
Relay's roots trace back to Republic Wireless, the Raleigh company it was founded as in 2015 and which itself was spun out of Bandwidth, according to Axios. The startup later became a fully independent company in 2021, after Dish Network acquired Republic Wireless but left the Relay product line out of the deal, as Fierce Network reported at the time.
That corporate untangling followed an earlier pivot that reshaped the whole business. Relay originally launched in May 2018 as a screen-free smart device aimed at kids, but hoteliers and commercial venue operators began buying the hardware during the COVID-19 pandemic to replace traditional walkie-talkies for their staff, per the same Fierce Network account. The company leaned into that demand, and its device now doubles as a smartphone app integration, a real-time language translator between workers, and a safety alert system for team members who need immediate help, according to Axios.
Panic Buttons Meet Regulatory Mandates
That safety-alert function has become a major selling point in hospitality, where legislative mandates in states like New Jersey, Illinois, and Washington require hotel operators to equip staff with panic devices, according to Hotel Dive. Relay's puck-shaped device combines two-way push-to-talk communication with automated, location-precise panic alerts, helping hotel chains meet those rules as well as the American Hotel & Lodging Association's 5-Star Promise, the outlet reported. CEO Chuang has separately described the broader problem Relay is chasing as “signal evaporation,” his term for the operational intelligence that frontline workers speak over radios but that disappears without being recorded, leading to delays and costly rework, according to SiliconANGLE.
Relay's devices are already used across hospitality, health care, education and manufacturing, and they provide real-time location data and insights because they're connected to the internet, per Axios. In January 2025, the company added an AI feature called TeamTranslate that provides live, automated voice and text translation across more than 33 languages for frontline workers on connected channels, according to a release carried by PR Newswire.
Growth Numbers Behind the Raise
The fundraise follows a run of strong numbers for the roughly ten-year-old company. Relay reported serving more than 40 Fortune 500 companies and a net revenue retention rate exceeding 135% among enterprise clients as of a January 2026 company update, alongside more than 100 patents tied to its multi-network connectivity and cloud-connected hardware. Relay was also named to the Inc. 5000 list of America's fastest-growing private companies for the third consecutive year in August, building on a previously reported 645% annual revenue growth rate during its Raleigh headquarters expansion.
Relay now employs around 300 people and plans to hire about 100 more workers over the next year, Chuang told Axios. The company has already outgrown its space in the Advance Auto Parts Tower in North Hills and now subleases space at Bandwidth's headquarters near Lenovo Center, according to the same report.
With International Paper now at the table as an investor, the next test for Relay will be whether traditional manufacturers embrace voice-based AI tools at the same pace hotels and hospitals did, and whether an entrenched player like Motorola answers with cloud-connected hardware of its own.
