The demand for voice and speech recognition technology is huge and is growing. one analyze It is found in the market and market of market research firms that the industry may be worth more than $28.1 billion by 2027.
There are no shortage of vendors that offer voice and voice recognition solutions, but some newer upstarts have managed to articulate the niche. Sanas is a good example. Founded in 2020, the company has developed software to adjust speaker accents in real time using AI.
“At Sanas, we believe that while technology is changing the industry, it should not replace relationships, but enhance it,” Sanas co-founder and president Sharath Keshava Narayana told TechCrunch. “As the number of customer interactions continues to expand globally, the need for communication between people remains critical.”
During college, Maxim Serebryakov launched Sanas along with Shawn Zhang and Andrés Soderi. The three were inspired by the frustrating experiences of classmates working in a call center.
“Max and Sean’s friend Raul had to return to Nicaragua to support his family, facing accent discrimination in his call center work,” Narayana said. “His experience in ‘accent and training’ and his attitude towards The losses he inflicted inspired Max and Sean to build solutions to reduce accent bias.”
Narayana was previously a co-founded call center startup in 2021 observejoined Sanas, and the company received its first funding.
SANAS’s technology analyzes speech and output-transformed speech that matches the specified accent. The company claims it retains the emotions and “identity” of the original speaker while minimizing reverb, echo and noise.
“What sets SANA apart is the company’s patented AI technology that recognizes voice patterns and adjusts them immediately while keeping the speaker’s unique identity intact,” Narayana said. “Sanas’ AI model accepted from our technology partners. and the internal voice actors gathered data sets there with over 50 million voice training. “
Recently, Sanas acquired rival Intone, which Narayana said “enhanced Sanas’IP Portfolio” and positioned the startup to serve a wider customer base.
Today, Sanas has about 50 customers in industries including healthcare, logistics and hardware manufacturing. Narayana said the company’s annual recurring revenue has reached $21 million, an increase of $3 million from last year.
Sanas is in a controversial business. Some research suggestions In fact, this contact with different accents helps fighting bias. Just as the technicians Personal profile for early 2022SANAS’s solution risked unifying homogeneous workers in call centers.
Narayana overturned the concept.
“It is not only technology that sets Sanas apart, but its deep human mission to break barriers, reduce discrimination and expand global voices,” he said. “With my co-founder, we are building a communication It is a world of bridges, not an obstacle.”
The hybrid optics do not seem to affect Sanas’ ability to raise cash. This week, Sanas announced it closed $48 million in funding, which valued the company more than $500 million. Quadrille Capital and Teleperformance led the round, which also came from Insight Partners, Aile Capital, Alorica and DN Capital.
More than $100 million in capital raised to date, Sanas plans to build a new “voice-to-voice” algorithm that expands into new regions and “explores such as healthcare, retail and such as healthcare and
Beyond,” Narayana said.
“The clear focus on responsibly expanding and continuous innovation, Sanas is ready for potential weather headwinds,” he continued.
Sanas also intends to add a team of about 150 people, Narayana, and opens a new office in the Philippines, a rural residence for millions of contact centers.
