Armenian startup Krisp has raised $5M A round as demand grows for its voice-isolating algorithm, TechChrunch reports.
Krisp’s smart noise suppression tech, which silences ambient sounds and isolates the voice for calls got out in front of the global shift to virtual presence, turning early niche traction into real customers and attracting a shiny new $5 million series A funding round to expand and diversify its timely offering, the website writes.
Krisp applies a machine learning system to audio in real time that has been trained on what is and isn’t the human voice. What isn’t a voice gets carefully removed even during speech, and what remains sounds clearer.
It can work on practically any device, especially ones with AI acceleration units like most modern smartphones.
The company began by offering its standalone software for free, with paid tier that removed time limits. It also shipped integrated into popular social chat app Discord. But the real business is, unsurprisingly, in enterprise.
“Early on our revenue was all pro, but in December we started onboarding enterprises. COVID has really accelerated that plan,” explained Davit Baghdasaryan, co-founder and CEO of Krisp.
“In March, our biggest customer was a large tech company with 2,000 employees — and they bought 2,000 licenses, because everyone is remote. Gradually enterprise is taking over, because we’re signing up banks, call centers and so on. But we think Krisp will still be consumer-first, because everyone needs that, right?” he added.
Now even more large companies have signed on, including one call center with some 40,000 employees. Baghdasaryan says the company went from 0 to 600 paying enterprises, and $0 to $4M annual recurring revenue in a single year, which probably makes the investment — by Storm Ventures, Sierra Ventures, TechNexus and Hive Ventures — look like a pretty safe one.
Back in March Forbes recommended the Armenia-made app for remote work amid coronavirus outbreak
