Wispr Secures $25M Funding for Voice Dictation App

Wispr Secures $25M in New Funding for Voice AI Advancement

Wispr, a voice AI firm, is experiencing significant growth with its dictation application, Wispr Flow. User engagement metrics indicate that, on average, individuals compose over 50% of their written content utilizing the app after just three months of use.

The company has also successfully penetrated the corporate sector, now serving 270 companies listed within the Fortune 500. Furthermore, Wispr has been onboarding an average of 125 enterprise clients each week recently.

Recent Investment and Company Valuation

Following a $30 million funding round completed in June, led by Menlo Ventures, Wispr has secured an additional $25 million. This latest investment was spearheaded by Notable Capital, with participation from Steven Bartlett’s Flight Fund.

This brings the total capital raised by the company to $81 million. Sources familiar with the matter have revealed that Wispr’s post-money valuation now stands at $700 million.

Hans Tung of Notable Capital, an investor in prominent companies like Affirm and Airbnb, will join Wispr’s board as an observer.

Growth and Investor Interest

Since June, Wispr Flow has demonstrated a month-over-month growth rate of 40%, according to CEO Tanay Kothari. The product’s popularity within the venture capital community has generated substantial inbound investor interest.

Kothari explained that despite having a strong financial position and a lean team, the compelling proposals from Hans Tung and Steven Bartlett prompted the company to pursue this additional funding round.

Notable’s team conducted thorough research, competitor analysis, and developed a robust investment thesis supporting Wispr’s potential.

Future Plans and Expansion

The company is now focusing on international expansion and the development of new product features. The additional funding will facilitate the recruitment of leading machine learning experts, potentially diverting talent from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic.

Wispr reports a 100x increase in its user base year-over-year, coupled with a 70% user retention rate over a 12-month period.

Initially, the company observed a decline in usage among non-technical users who were unaware of the app’s capabilities beyond its internal dictation feature. To address this, a new user onboarding flow was implemented to highlight the app’s functionality across various applications.

Platform Expansion and Technological Advancements

Wispr intends to extend the availability of the Flow app beyond Windows, Mac, and iOS. An Android beta version is scheduled for release by the end of the year, with a stable launch anticipated in the first quarter of 2025.

Investment will also be directed towards developing proprietary voice models to enhance user understanding and personalize Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR). The goal is to minimize the need for post-dictation editing.

Wispr claims its current error rate is approximately 10%, significantly lower than the 27% reported by OpenAI’s Whisper and the 47% of Apple’s native transcription.

API Access and Competitive Landscape

While currently focused on consumer applications, Wispr is piloting its technology through a closed API with select enterprise partners and hardware manufacturers. Plans are underway to broaden API access to a wider developer community next year.

The dictation space includes competitors such as Willow, Aqua, Monologue, Typeless, TalkTastic, Superwhisper, and BetterDictation.

Vision for the Future

Wispr’s ambition extends beyond simple dictation, aiming to automate tasks like email responses. The company envisions becoming a voice-led operating system capable of initiating workflow automation.

Notable’s Tung emphasized Wispr’s potential, stating the company’s focus on user experience and scalability, coupled with the quality of its team, are particularly impressive.

He highlighted the company’s potential to deliver a well-scaled application with a superior user interface.

This article has been updated to include Wispr’s valuation. Additional reporting by Marina Temkin.