Startup Verbit Inc. today announced that it has secured a $250 million funding round at a $2 billion valuation to develop more features for its namesake transcription and captioning platform.

The feature development effort is part of a broader growth plan that the startup detailed this morning. New York-based Verbit also intends to pursue acquisition opportunities following the funding round. The startup expects to grow its headcount from 470 employees today to 750 by 2023.

Verbit’s platform is used by more than 2,000 organizations to perform tasks such as transcribing legal proceedings and generating captions for online courses. Through the platform, a network of about 35,000 freelance transcribers produce transcripts for Verbit customers with the help of a specialized artificial intelligence engine developed by the startup. The AI engine, the startup says, filters background noise, detects domain-specific terms and performs related tasks.

According to Verbit, its platform can deliver transcripts with accuracy levels of 99.9%. Moreover, the startup says that customers receive transcripts up to 10 times faster than when using competing offerings.

“This funding round is a vote of confidence in our ability to solidify our position as the market leader within the transcription space,” said Verbit founder and Chief Executive Tom Livne. “We built a powerful technological platform to modernize this industry and our strategy to build vertically integrated, voice AI solutions has brought tremendous value to our customers and enabled their businesses to become more accessible.” 

Verbit’s more than 2,000 customers include businesses, legal agencies, universities and other organizations. The startup is reportedly generating more than $100 million in annual revenue from its customers, a milestone it has reached by growing sales sixfold over the past year. Even so, Verbit believes that the most significant opportunities are still ahead: The startup estimates that the global transcription market is worth $30 billion.

In addition to lead investor Third Point Ventures, Verbit’s newly announced $250 million funding round included the participation of more than a half-dozen others. They included Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.’s Next investment arm, as well as Sapphire Ventures, More Capital, Disruptive AI, Vertex Growth, 40North and TCP.

The round consisted of a $150 million primary investment and $100 million in secondary transactions through which existing Verbit investors sold shares. 

“Verbit is a special company combining exceptional technology-driven organic and inorganic growth in the transcription marketplace,” said Third Point Ventures managing partner Robert Schwartz. “It’s rare to encounter such a large, fragmented market ripe for digital transformation and simultaneous consolidation.”

The company’s latest funding round could be one of the last the startup raises before listing its shares. Reuters reported today that Verbit expects to go public within the next 18 months. The startup reportedly anticipates that it will “most likely” take the traditional IPO route to going public instead of using a different method such as a merger with a special purpose acquisition company.

Verbit has raised more than $550 million in funding to date. 

Image: Verbit