Networking giant Cisco acquired EzDuba Y-Combinator-backed consumer startup that provides real-time translation services. Cisco announced the acquisition over the weekend, but the company did not disclose the size of the deal.
EzDubs was founded by Padmanabhan Krishnamurthy, Amrutavarsh Kinagi and Kareem Nassar in 2023. Notably, Nassar previously worked in Cisco’s Speech AI group before co-founding the startup. The company raised $4.2 million in seed funding led by Venture Highway, which was founded by Neeraj Arora, who was previously the chief business officer of WhatsApp. Other investors in EzDubs include Replit CEO Amjad Masad. Replit President Michele Catasta. Qasar Younis, who is the CEO of self-driving vehicle software company Applied Intuition. and Ben Firshman, CEO of cloud startup Replicate (which was acquired by Cloudflare in a deal that was announced on Monday).
Cisco he said plans to integrate EzDubs’ technology into its communications platform, Cisco Collaboration, which spans hardware and software. This means users can get features like live translation in products like video calling and Webex messaging. Cisco’s blog post also said it could make the translation technology — which preserves the speaker’s original voice — available to partners and developers.
“The EzDubs team will join Cisco Collaboration, working side-by-side with the product, engineering, and go-to-market teams. Together, we will chart a new path for the industry where AI doesn’t just support collaboration, but truly empowers it,” Snorre Kjesbu, SVP of Collaboration at Cisco, he said in the post.
Cisco did not specify whether all members of the EzDubs team are joining the company. We’ve asked the company to clarify and will update the story if we hear back.
EzDubs is shutting down its consumer apps, which supported call translations for more than 30 languages, by December 15.
“From launching the world’s first video dub tool that garnered millions of views on X (fka Twitter) to being able to translate real-time phone calls, voice and emotions in 30+ languages, this journey has been amazing. But what’s really meant it is the support, feedback and stories you’ve shared along the way.” a blog post.
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In recent months there have been few acquisitions in the translation space. This month, Palabra AI powered by Seven Seven Six acquired Talo live communication platform. In July, language detection company TransPerfect acquired Unbabela translation startup founded in Portugal.
The EzDubs acquisition also raises the question of whether it is viable to create a consumer-focused translation when there is more money and demand in the corporate communication market. According to various exhibitionsthe translation services market is valued at approximately $40 billion.
