Japan voice AI player RevComm raises $14m Series A
RevComm, a Japan-based voice recognition artificial intelligence (AI) technology provider, has closed its Series A round at JPY1.5 billion ($14.2 million) with support from several local VCs.
World Innovation Lab (WiL) led the round’s first JPY800 million tranche via its second fund, which specializes in bridging the Japanese and US start-up ecosystems. A second tranche of JPY700 million brought in KDDI Corp and Sony, both LPs from WiL Fund II, which participated via a Global Brain-managed vehicle and the Sony Innovation Fund, respectively.
The Series A also featured NTT Docomo Ventures, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, All Star SaaS Fund, Hakuhodo DY Ventures, DNX Ventures, and Deepcore, an AI-focused incubator set up by SoftBank Group. Previous backers include videoconferencing technology platform V-Cube, human resources services provider En-Japan, and Persol Innovation Fund, the corporate VC arm of human resources firm Persol Holdings.
RevComm is targeting a corporate clientele with its lead product development, a cloud-enabled desktop office phone service called MiiTel that uses AI to record, transcribe, and visualize speech in real-time. The service monitors a number of data points, including the number of back-and-forth changes in a conversation, the type of conversation, and the speed and pitch of the voices. These data are analyzed to assess customer-handling and help improve customer-engagement skills.
MiiTel is expected to be especially practical for sales teams, call centers, and the business process outsourcing industry. It is currently in use by 400 companies, with the cumulative number of registered users exceeding 10,000 as of August. This compares to 5,000 users in May. “Going forward greater demand for MiiTel is expected, given the increasing importance of non-face-to-face sales activities for companies amid the COVID-19 pandemic,” NTT Docomo Ventures added in a release.
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