Artificial intelligence-powered transcribing and captioning software company Verbit announced it has raised $23 million, with plans to expand its real-time transcription services for its legal industry clients.
The Series A round was led by Viola Ventures with Verbit’s co-founders remaining as the main shareholders, said Verbit co-founder Tom Livne. Vertex Ventures, HV Ventures, Oryzn Capital, Vintage Venture Partners and Clal Tech also participated in the round.
This latest investment brings Verbit’s total funds raised to $34 million, following an earlier $11 million seed round, according to a press release from the company.
In an interview, Livne said the investment would be used to expand the company’s workforce and capabilities. “[It] allow us to grow even faster than we started, to keep developing more products and add more people.”
The company also plans to use its new investment to create cheaper and less human-intensive closed captioning.
The two-year-old company allows users to have video or audio files transcribed or captioned with AI and double-checked by a network of freelancers. Livne said the freelancers are the last line of defense to ensure accuracy, and the freelancers’ corrections improve the AI through the software’s machine learning capabilities.
The final transcript or caption can be produced in real-time and offered in several formats, including PDFs and Word documents.
Verbit can also differentiate between multiple voices and differing accents and languages in a recording. Along with supporting English and Spanish, it can also transcribe the specialized—and a bit maddening—language of legalese.
Once it signs up a legal customer, Verbit asks them their needs and specific legal terms they use, Livne explained. Verbit can add the terms in the language module created specifically for the customer, he added.
While courtroom transcribers aren’t new to the legal industry, Livne believes many aren’t deploying advanced technology for such matters. Other AI-powered transcribers include Rev.com and 3Play Media. Livine said his company differentiates itself by its customization and price point.