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Sanas Raises $65 Million Series B, Accelerating Global Adoption of Its Real-Time Speech Understanding Technology
Enter your email to get Benzinga's ultimate morning update: The PreMarket Activity Newsletter PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb. 19, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sanas, provider of the world's first Real-Time Speech Understanding Platform, announced a $65M Series B funding round, accelerating the company's momentum and customer growth. Quadrille Capital led the round with strong participation from existing investors including Insight Partners, Quiet Capital, and DN Capital. Global digital services provider, Teleperformance (TP), also became a new strategic partner and invested in the company. This latest round brings Sanas north of $100M in total funding to date. "Sanas is leveraging AI to revolutionize global communication with its groundbreaking Real-Time Accent Translation technology," said Amine Baji, Vice President at Quadrille Capital. "We have been particularly impressed by Sanas' user-friendly interface, strong customer reputation, and outstanding growth trajectory." "Accent-based bias is a global challenge. At Sanas, we're building toward a future where people can more easily understand each other, regardless of their origin," said Maxim Serebryakov, CEO and co-founder of Sanas. "Our patented technology allows people to maintain their voice and accent, while also helping businesses reduce costly, time-intensive hiring cycles and minimize the likelihood of attrition. In real-time, we're unlocking new enterprise efficiencies and creating unprecedented career opportunities for more people around the world to join the global economy. As a result, our customers are growing their revenue and at the same time improving their bottom line." The new capital will be used to expand Sanas' overall Speech Understanding AI Platform by launching additional speech-to-speech algorithms, entering new geographies, and broadening its use cases to industries beyond contact centers. Furthermore, the funding will support building the company's infrastructure and team to drive these initiatives. Combined, these offerings provide businesses the opportunity to improve speech and voice recognition, which is projected to become a $28B market within the next three years. "Sanas has experienced remarkable momentum in the Customer Experience Management (CXM) industry since its founding. In just 18 months, our patented Real-Time Speech Understanding AI technology has been adopted by hundreds of thousands of agents across 39 countries. Today, we proudly support industry leaders, including the top five BPOs, top three financial services institutions, top five healthcare providers, top two logistics companies, and top five hardware manufacturers," said Sharath Keshava Narayana, President and co-founder of Sanas. "Our new strategic partnership with Sanas is part of our AI growth strategy that will allow us to implement advanced AI tools to reinvent customer experience by bringing high-touch, high-tech solutions to clients that are simpler, faster, more empathetic and safer," said Thomas Mackenbrock, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of global digital business services provider TP. "We are committed to advancing our AI capabilities to drive value through cutting-edge innovation to deepen human connections, and this partnership with Sanas supports that roadmap." Industry Recognition This year, Sanas was recognized with the following awards: Frost & Sullivan, North American Technology Innovation Leader 2024Fast Company, Top 100 Best Workplaces for Innovators 2024Will Reed's, Top 100 2024 For more information and to book a virtual demo with Sanas, visit: https://www.sanas.ai. About Sanas Sanas provides the world's first Real-Time Speech Understanding Platform powered by its patented AI technologies. Born from a mission to power a kinder, more compassionate world, Sanas is pioneering a revolution in human connection by making global, real-time communication more inclusive. Today, Sanas offers Real-Time Accent Translation and free-forever Noise Cancellation. Founded in 2020, Sanas is led by a team of exceptional co-founders, including CEO Maxim Serebryakov, CTO Shawn Zhang, and President Sharath Keshava Narayana. To learn more, visit Sanas.ai. About Quadrille Capital Quadrille is a transatlantic investment platform focusing on high-growth technology companies. Quadrille has supported successful growth-stage companies in Europe, the United States and Asia for more than 25 years. The firm also invests across complementary private secondary and primary tech strategies, managing $2bn in assets, with a team of 40 professionals based in Paris, New York, and San Francisco. Contact Information sanas@nectarpr.com Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
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Sanas taps AI to change call center workers' accents in real time | TechCrunch
The demand for voice and speech recognition technologies is massive -- and growing. An analysis by market research firm Markets and Markets found that the sector could be worth over $28.1 billion by 2027. There's no shortage of vendors providing voice and speech recognition solutions, but some newer upstarts have managed to carve out niches. Sanas is a good example. Founded in 2020, the company develops software that uses AI to adjust a speaker's accent in real-time. "At Sanas, we believe that while technology is transforming the industry, it shouldn't replace human connection, but rather, enhance it," Sharath Keshava Narayana, Sanas' co-founder and president, told TechCrunch. "With the number of customer interactions continuing to scale globally, the need for human-to-human communication remains critical." Maxim Serebryakov launched Sanas with Shawn Zhang and Andrés Soderi while in college. The trio was inspired by a fellow student's frustrating experience working in a call center. "Max and Shawn's friend, Raul, who had to return to Nicaragua to support his family, faced accent discrimination at his call center job," Narayana said. "His experience with 'accent neutralization training' and the toll it took on him inspired Max and Shawn to build a solution to reduce accent bias." In 2021, Narayana, who previously co-founded call center startup Observe.ai, joined Sanas, and the company secured its first tranche of funding. Sanas' technology analyzes speech and outputs converted speech that matches a specified accent. The company claims it is able to preserve the original speaker's emotion and "identity" while minimizing reverb, echo, and noise. "What sets Sanas apart is the company's patented AI technologies, which recognize phonetic patterns and adjust them instantly while keeping the speaker's unique identity intact," Narayana said. "Sanas's AI models are trained with over 50 million utterances of speech using datasets collected from our technology partners and in-house voice actors." Recently, Sanas acquired InTone, a competitor, which Narayana said "strengthens Sanas' IP portfolio" and positions the startup to serve a wider customer base. Today, Sanas has around 50 customers in industries including healthcare, logistics, and hardware manufacturing. Narayana said that the company's annual recurring revenue has reached $21 million, up $3 million from last year. Sanas is in a bit of a controversial business. Some research suggests that exposure to different accents in fact helps to combat bias. As technologists told The Guardian in a 2022 profile of the startup, Sanas' solutions run the risk of homogenizing workers across call centers. Narayana pushed back against this notion. "What makes Sanas special is not just the technology, but its deeply human mission to break barriers, reduce discrimination, and amplify voices across the globe," he said. "Together with my co-founders, we're building a world where communication is a bridge -- not a barrier." The mixed optics don't appear to have impacted Sanas' ability to raise cash. This week, Sanas announced that it closed a $65 million funding round that values the company at over $500 million. Quadrille Capital and Teleperformance led the round, which also had participation from Insight Partners, Quiet Capital, Alorica, and DN Capital. Having raised over $100 million in capital to date, Sanas plans to build new "speech-to-speech" algorithms, expand to new regions, and "explore opportunities across industries such as healthcare, retail, and beyond," Narayana said. "With a clear focus on scaling responsibly and innovating continuously, Sanas is well-prepared to weather potential headwinds," he continued. Sanas also intends to grow its roughly-150-person team, Narayana added, and open a new office in the Philippines, a country home to millions of contact centers.
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Sanas, a startup developing AI-powered real-time accent translation technology, has raised $65 million in Series B funding to expand its Speech Understanding AI Platform and accelerate global adoption.
Sanas, a Palo Alto-based startup providing real-time speech understanding technology, has announced a significant $65 million Series B funding round. This investment, led by Quadrille Capital with participation from existing investors and new strategic partner Teleperformance, brings the company's total funding to over $100 million 12.
At the core of Sanas' offering is its patented Real-Time Accent Translation technology. This AI-driven solution allows for instant adjustment of a speaker's accent while preserving their voice and identity. The technology aims to reduce accent-based bias and improve global communication, particularly in industries like customer experience management (CXM) 1.
Since its founding in 2020, Sanas has experienced remarkable growth. In just 18 months, the company's technology has been adopted by hundreds of thousands of agents across 39 countries. Sanas now supports industry leaders, including top BPOs, financial services institutions, healthcare providers, logistics companies, and hardware manufacturers 1.
The new capital will be used to expand Sanas' overall Speech Understanding AI Platform. This expansion includes:
The voice and speech recognition market is projected to reach $28 billion within the next three years, highlighting the significant potential for Sanas' technology 2. The company has also received industry recognition, including:
As part of the funding round, global digital services provider Teleperformance (TP) has become a strategic partner and investor in Sanas. This partnership aligns with TP's AI growth strategy, aiming to implement advanced AI tools to reinvent customer experience 1.
While Sanas' technology has garnered significant interest and investment, it has also faced some controversy. Critics argue that exposure to different accents helps combat bias, and homogenizing workers across call centers may not be the best approach 2. However, Sanas maintains that its mission is to break barriers, reduce discrimination, and amplify voices globally 2.
Looking ahead, Sanas plans to explore opportunities in healthcare, retail, and other industries. The company also intends to grow its team of approximately 150 people and open a new office in the Philippines, a major hub for contact centers 2.
As Sanas continues to expand and refine its AI-powered accent translation technology, it remains to be seen how this innovation will shape the future of global communication and customer service industries.
Teleperformance, the world's largest call center operator, implements AI technology to modify Indian accents in real-time, sparking debate on efficiency versus cultural authenticity.
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Crescendo, an AI-powered customer service platform, has raised $50 million in total financing and acquired PartnerHero. The company aims to transform customer operations with its innovative technology.
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ElevenLabs, a leading AI voice technology company, has raised $180 million in Series C funding, tripling its valuation to $3.3 billion. The company plans to use the funds to enhance its voice AI research, expand globally, and develop new products for digital interactions.
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Gladia, a French AI startup, has secured $16 million in Series A funding to develop an advanced multilingual real-time audio transcription and analytics engine, aiming to revolutionize voice-first platforms across various industries.
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Speak, an AI-driven language learning platform, secures $78 million in Series C funding, doubling its valuation to $1 billion. The startup uses advanced AI tools to focus on spoken conversation, aiming to revolutionize language education.
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