Speech recognition software company Speechmatics has raised $62m (£50.3m) to aid its expansion into the US and Asia-Pacific in its recent Series B round led by Susquehanna Growth Equity.
Headquartered in Cambridge, Speechmatics has built speech-to-text software that can understand 34 languages. According to the firm it has been exposed to “millions of hours” of “hundreds of thousands” voices, reducing mistakes and bias in its artificial intelligence (AI).
“The patient capital will enable us to double down on our vision to close the gap between humanity and machines, which is incredibly exciting,” said Katy Wigdahl, CEO, Speechmatics.
The AI company will also use the Series B capital to improve its data centre capacity as well as research and development.
Users of the platform include Deloitte UK, 3Play Media and Veritone. Last year the company launched its speech-to-text service on Microsoft’s Azure Marketplace.
Jonathan Klahr, managing director, Susquehanna Growth Equity said: “We started tracking Speechmatics when our portfolio companies told us that again and again Speechmatics win on accuracy against all the other options including those coming from ‘Big Tech’ players.”
As part of the funding round, Klahr will join Speechmatics’s board.
Capital also came from previous investors AlbionVC and IQ Capital. The funding follows on from its £6m Series A in October 2019.
Speechmatics has offices in Cambridge, London, Boston, USA, Chennai, India and Czech Republic.