Jason Luo Appointed CEO of Newo to Accelerate Partner-Led Growth in Voice AI Infrastructure Following $25M Series A

Leadership appointment signals next phase of expansion through MSPs, VoIP providers, and integration partners, with EU market entry and ecosystem growth underway

SAN FRANCISCO, April 21, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Newo, the AI communication automation platform that turns customer conversations into revenue, today announced the appointment of Jason Luo as Chief Executive Officer. The move comes as the company accelerates its partner-first go-to-market strategy, enabling MSPs, VoIP providers, and software platforms to deliver AI voice infrastructure at scale to small and medium-sized businesses.

Newo provides human-like AI voice and text agents that answer, route, and resolve customer inquiries across phone calls, SMS, web chat, and messaging platforms. Luo’s appointment follows Newo’s recent $25 million Series A funding round, bringing total capital raised to approximately $32 million and positioning Newo to expand its partner ecosystem, deepen integration partnerships, and support upcoming market expansion, including a planned EU marketing launch.

Across the U.S., small businesses miss between 20% and 40% of inbound calls due to staffing constraints, peak-hour overload, and after-hours demand. Industry research further suggests that up to 62% of calls to small businesses go unanswered. In sectors such as dental practices, restaurants, home services, and cleaning companies, those missed calls represent high-intent customers ready to book appointments or request services. In industries where a single booked appointment can be worth hundreds or thousands of dollars, even small percentages of missed demand quickly compound into significant revenue loss.

“Newo has reached a stage where execution and scale matter more than vision alone,” said David Yang, co-founder of Newo. “Jason brings the operational leadership discipline, go-to-market acumen, and AI platform experience required to capture a massive market opportunity. As demand for AI voice accelerates, our partners will be central to how this technology is deployed across industries.”

A proven operator for AI-native growth
Luo brings deep experience scaling SaaS and AI-enabled platforms through integration, transformation, and accelerated growth, particularly within partner-driven and private equity-backed environments. He has served as CEO, CRO, and COO across private equity–backed software businesses, leading spin-offs, multi-company mergers, and enterprise and SMB expansion strategies.

Most recently, as Chief Revenue Officer at Actabl, a merger of four hospitality SaaS companies, Luo unified go-to-market operations under a single operating model and doubled bookings organically. Earlier in his career, he served as CEO of ALICE following its spin-out from Expedia and held senior operating roles supporting high-growth software platforms. His appointment signals Newo’s shift from early traction to disciplined, scalable growth. His background also includes experience with global organizations such as Mastercard and Kellogg, as well as private equity-backed environments including Alpine Investors.

“Small businesses live and die based on customer growth, yet most still lose leads simply because no one picks up the phone,” said Jason Luo, CEO of Newo. “AI voice has moved beyond experimentation and is becoming operational infrastructure. Our focus is scaling Newo through our partner ecosystem, enabling MSPs, VoIP providers, and software platforms to deliver fully integrated AI agents that capture every opportunity across every channel.”

Luo’s mandate is clear: build the operating engine required to transform AI voice from an emerging tool into a standard layer of SMB infrastructure.

“It's a golden era for SMBs. AI is more accessible and practical than ever. An AI receptionist is not just another tool, but rather, a reliable team member that can extend coverage beyond business hours, handle peak workloads, and take routine calls off staff plates, all while integrating with existing channels and workflows. The result is tangible value for both managers and employees. With Newo, our partners are delivering a fully configured agent after a one hour onboarding call.”

Targeting high-friction, high-value industries
As a partner-first company, Newo’s early growth is evident in industries where the economics of timely call responsiveness are clear. Newo’s AI Receptionist, AI Front Desk, and AI Call Center infrastructure are designed to operate as always-on, production-grade voice agents that answer, route, book, qualify, and escalate customer interactions across phone, SMS, web chat, and messaging platforms. More than 15,000 AI agents have already been created on the platform, supported by a growing network of over 200 certified partners.

Dental and orthodontic practices frequently experience peak-hour overload and after-hours call loss, often missing nearly one in five inbound calls during busy periods. Similarly, restaurants face high call volumes during lunch and dinner rushes, where even short hold times can lead to abandoned orders. Home services and cleaning businesses operate in the field, leaving inbound calls unanswered while teams are on-site. Across these verticals, customers increasingly expect instant response. When a call goes to voicemail, they move to the next provider.

Newo’s Zero-Hallucination Architecture addresses one of the core barriers to deploying AI in live voice environments: reliability. The system uses multiple AI agents operating in parallel to verify responses, delivering sub-second latency and consistent, production-grade accuracy. This enables structured booking workflows, routing logic, and escalation processes to function predictably under real-world conditions.

Under Luo’s leadership, Newo plans to deepen its vertical specialization while expanding its partner-first distribution model across MSPs, VoIP providers, and software platforms serving SMBs.

Scaling operational AI through partners
Newo doubled revenue in the final two months of 2025 as adoption accelerated across dental, restaurant, and home service providers. The recent $25 million Series A round underscores growing investor conviction that AI has moved from proof of concept to operational necessity, particularly when delivered through scalable, partner-led distribution. With fresh capital and new leadership in place, Newo will accelerate product innovation, expand its partner ecosystem, and deepen vertical specialization across industries where inbound demand remains under-optimized.

“A hyper realistic AI agent can be deployed in less than five minutes increasing SMB revenue by 15-20%,” Luo said. “Our job is to make it easy for our partners and customers to realize the power of this revolutionary technology.”

About Newo
Newo is a San Francisco–born AI startup building human-like AI Receptionists and Agents for small and medium businesses. The company’s platform enables businesses to answer calls, book appointments, and drive revenue across voice, SMS, web chat, and messaging. Designed as a partner-first infrastructure platform, Newo empowers MSPs, VoIP providers, software companies, and agencies to deploy scalable, white-label AI communication automation in minutes.

Media contact
NewoPR@watersagency.com

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Jason Luo

Newo today announced the appointment of Jason Luo as Chief Executive Officer.

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