AI
AI
AI
Snap acquires Israeli voice assistant startup Voca.ai for $70M
Snap Inc. has acquired Israeli voice assistant solutions startup Voca.ai Ltd. for $70 million, according to reports today from Calcalist and Globes referencing people with knowledge of the deal.
Neither Snap nor Voca.ai has yet confirmed the reports.
Founded in 2017, Voca.ai offers an artificial intelligence-powered voice assistant platform designed to free up human agents for other tasks. The service offers “Voca Agents” that use emotional intelligence to provide natural, intelligent and empathetic spoken conversations.
Voca.ai says it can handle the most prevalent workflows by using end-to-end speech neural models, allowing companies to automate the vast majority of conversations, including inbound and outbound calls across an array on industries.
Customers include IDT, Toshiba Corp., LoanMe Inc., General Reinsurance Corp., Amdocs Ltd., Disability Help Group and First Class Capital.
While the technology is primarily used in customer call centers, Globes notes that the technology and bot can be adopted for other uses. Because this is 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic comes into the picture with Voca.ai collecting voice samples of callers to learn to identify from their voice patterns if they are infected with the coronavirus. The presumption is that as COVID-19 affects the lungs and respiratory system, this will influence the voice of somebody who is infected.
The ability for the technology to do more than customer support may be the appeal for Snap. Next Reality suggests that Voca.ai’s speech-to-intent algorithm could be used to enhance all-in-one e-commerce tools by adding a clever virtual voice agent to the mix.
Another potential use is the addition of the technology to Snap’s Lens Studio software suite, allowing anyone to create an augmented reality experience with added virtual voice assistant interactivity. The last is the possibility that Voca.ai’s technology could be added to Snap’s Spectacles. Suffice to say that Snap could find a wide range of different areas it could apply the technology to.
Prior to acquisition, Voca.ai had raised $6.1 million in venture capital funding. Investors included American Express, Lool Ventures and Flint Capital.
Photo: Voca.ai
A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:
Support our mission to keep content open and free by engaging with theCUBE community. Join theCUBE’s Alumni Trust Network, where technology leaders connect, share intelligence and create opportunities.
- 15M+ viewers of theCUBE videos, powering conversations across AI, cloud, cybersecurity and more
- 11.4k+ theCUBE alumni — Connect with more than 11,400 tech and business leaders shaping the future through a unique trusted-based network.
About SiliconANGLE Media
SiliconANGLE Media is a recognized leader in digital media innovation, uniting breakthrough technology, strategic insights and real-time audience engagement. As the parent company of SiliconANGLE, theCUBE Network, theCUBE Research, CUBE365, theCUBE AI and theCUBE SuperStudios — with flagship locations in Silicon Valley and the New York Stock Exchange — SiliconANGLE Media operates at the intersection of media, technology and AI.
Founded by tech visionaries John Furrier and Dave Vellante, SiliconANGLE Media has built a dynamic ecosystem of industry-leading digital media brands that reach 15+ million elite tech professionals. Our new proprietary theCUBE AI Video Cloud is breaking ground in audience interaction, leveraging theCUBEai.com neural network to help technology companies make data-driven decisions and stay at the forefront of industry conversations.
