US-Israeli AI-based transcription and captioning startup Verbit has raised USD 250 million in a Series E funding round after receiving a USD 150 million primary investment and USD 100 million in secondary transactions, the company announced on Tuesday.
The latest round secures the company’s position as a unicorn and doubles its valuation to USD 2 billion. The investment was led by Third Point Ventures, with additional participation by existing investors Sapphire Ventures, More Capital, Disruptive AI, Vertex Growth, 40North, Samsung Next, and TCP.
The company raised USD 157 million in a Series D round last May. Verbit’s total funding now exceeds USD 550 million, including secondary transactions.
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Founded in 2017 by Eric Shellef, Kobi Ben Tzvi, and Tom Livne, Verbit harnesses artificial and human intelligence to provide a smart transcription and captioning solution. The company’s technology, built on adaptive algorithms, generates accurate speech-to-text files from video and audio.
Verbit serves as a captioning and transcription partner for over 2,000 customers across different sectors, including media, education, corporate, legal, and government. The company’s employee headcount has grown to 470, along with 35,000 freelancer transcribers, and 600 professional caption providers globally.
The round demonstrates “investor confidence in the company’s promise to revolutionize the USD 30 billion transcription market,” Verbit announced. The firm will use the investment to pursue further mergers and acquisitions to add scale and new capabilities. Verbit will also provide enhanced value to its media, education, corporate, legal, and government clients, according to the press release.
“This funding round is a vote of confidence in our ability to solidify our position as the market leader within the transcription space,” said Tom Livne, CEO and founder of Verbit.
“We built a powerful technological platform to modernize this industry. Our strategy to build vertically integrated voice AI solutions have brought tremendous value to our customers and enabled their businesses to become more accessible,” Livne added.
“Verbit’s exceptionally talented team has achieved scale and leadership in an incredibly short time. We are excited to significantly increase our investment in Verbit and look forward to continuing to contribute to the company’s evolution and growth trajectory,” said Robert Schwartz, managing partner at Third Point Ventures. Schwartz will join Verbit’s board of directors.
The article was originally published by NoCamels, a leading news website covering breakthrough innovation from Israel for a global audience.