San Francisco-based startup InTone has developed an AI-powered voice platform for real-time accent enhancement and has raised $1.7 million in a seed funding round by Yellow Rocks!, A.Partners, and business angels from BPO and AI industries.
This follows a previous funding round in 2021, in which InTone raised $105K from Berkeley SkyDeck Fund and angel investors. The new funds will be used to scale InTone with new SMB and Enterprise BPO customers from India, the Philippines, and LATAM. The technology was launched earlier this year in India, and the company plans to scale the product with existing customers and expand within the call center industry in targeted regions, specifically in India, the Philippines, LATAM, and Pakistan.
AI as a solution to language barriers
The AI era has brought new solutions to existing problems, and InTone is one of them. In 2021, Andrew Golman and Egor Pavalyaev founded InTone, an on-device accent-enhancement platform that works in real-time, aimed at breaking down communication barriers and empowering people globally. Unlike other voice technologies that operate on a word-by-word basis, InTone uses deep neural networks that focus on sounds, allowing it to enhance accents in real-time and work even for rare words, technical terms, and proper names.
“InTone’s technology is already helping some of them to build better connections with customers over the phone. Take as an example, Philippines and India, huge markets for call-centers where InTone has been partnering with major players in the industry. Together with InTone’s fast-paced team, we’re very excited about the future of the company and the positive social impact it brings!” said Valerie Bertele, GP, Head of San Francisco office, Yellow Rocks!
InTone CEO Andrew Golman said, “We created InTone with an intent to help people focus on communicating ideas. Machine translation has already transformed written communication, and we are set to similarly transform spoken communication. Every day millions of people speak by phone, VOIP and messengers across continents. Time that is no longer lost in misunderstanding and repeating is not just a major productivity gain, it’s a new level of understanding each other and working together.”
“At the core of our mission is a commitment to helping people overcome language barriers, promoting greater inclusion and understanding. Our AI technology represents a significant step forward in achieving this goal, and we are excited about the positive impact it can have on individuals, businesses, and society as a whole. Our customers are choosing us for natural and non-robotic sound and we are working with them to scale the solution for more campaigns and regions,” said COO Egor Pavaliaev.
Further, InTone processes English speech and transposes regional accents to neutral British or American English in real-time using modern neural AI models. It works through a virtual audio device and integrates with all major calling software and dialers.
The Bay Area startup already works with call centers, BPOs, and customer experience companies with over 50,000 global voice support employees to drive top-line growth, operational efficiency, and superior customer experience.
