One year after its first raising of one million euros, the Lorraine startup Vivoka, specializing in the design of voice assistants, has completed a second raising of two million euros from its historical investors to accelerate its growth.
Vivoka makes its mark in the voice recognition market
At a time when artificial intelligence is booming, Vivoka is asserting its willingness to push the limits of voice recognition through this new round of talks. Launched in 2015 in Metz, Vivoka develops custom voice solutions that can be adapted to all types of users and types of business sectors. A year later, it announced the release of Zac, a holographic raccoon with artificial intelligence, capable of controlling household equipment by voice. In 2018, it raised funds for the development of its solutions and also for the industrialization of Zac, which for the moment is marketed to a professional target.
The French start-up is pursuing its ambition to revolutionize the way people interact with digital media through voice, through several projects carried out since the beginning of 2019 :
• Partnerships with the Ného group, the Villa Koegui hotel, or the Accor group through Adagio in the spring: creation of a connected room via the installation of its ZAC voice assistant in the Adagio Aparthotels.
• A partnership with SES-Imagotag, a global leader in connected labels that now equips several retail chains with Vivoka’s voice solutions, announced at the NRF in New York earlier this year.
• The launch of the Voice-Market on July 1st, the world’s first platform bringing together all voice-related technologies.
Strengthen its presence in the voice market by developing new solutions
Once again, Vivoka was able to convince its historical institutional investors as well as its private investors such as Eric Denoyer (Chairman of Otodo and co-founder of Numericable), MCH Gestion (specialist in Luxembourg real estate), Groupe Etchart (building and civil engineering company), Laurent Rouach (expert in Proptech in Luxembourg), and Gilles Caumont (founder of the Adista group).
Vivoka’s institutional partners also wanted to support the company, which has just been awarded a Programme d’Innovation d’Avenir (Future Innovation Programme) by the Grand EST Region and BPI France.
“The revolution in access to technology through voice will be comparable to the arrival of the Internet 30 years ago. Vivoka technology is unique in its ability to integrate as many interfaces as possible between humans and connected systems. The interaction between people and connected buildings is an integral part of this evolution, and as a manufacturer we are convinced that Vivoka will be the reference… This is the basis of our trust and our full support for this project“, says Alain ETCHART, CEO of the ETCHART group.
Carried out to maintain its hyper-growth phase, this fund-raising will enable Vivoka to realize several projects undertaken:
• Developing its R&D : continuing R&D on different technologies, such as identifying and understanding the emotions, gender and age of users, and deploying them to their partners.
• Strengthen its teams : with the aim of doubling its workforce, which had already doubled by the beginning of 2018, by hiring commercial and technical profiles. No less than 13 new hires are currently underway.
• Propel its new platform, the Voice-Market : accelerate the acquisition of quality Voice-Market partners to make it the only place dedicated to all voice technologies.
“We are delighted with the renewed confidence of our historical investors and partners. This new step is decisive for Vivoka as it gives us the means to achieve our ambitions. These funds will enable us to consolidate our current projects and establish their launches as early as 2020. The voice market is only in its infancy and so is Vivoka“, says William Simonin, co-founder and CEO of Vivoka.
About Vivoka
Founded in 2015 and based in Metz, Vivoka is a French company specializing in the creation of tailor-made voice solutions. Its ambition is to revolutionize the way people interact with digital media through voice. Vivoka develops a turnkey voice recognition and artificial intelligence technology that can be adapted to all types of business sectors.
Contact :
Laurent Scherschel
Communication Manager
scherschel.laurent@vivoka.com
