Verbit Raises $250M, Reaching $2B Valuation
Transcription AI startup Verbit has closed a $250 million Series E funding round led by Third Point Ventures. The new funding pushes Verbit’s valuation to more than $2 billion half a year after achieving $1 billion unicorn status.
Verbit Action
Verbit is a rising star in the captioning and transcription industry, a $30 billion market, according to the startup. Third Point first invested in Verbit in the last round before upping its contribution with $200 million for the newest funding. Sapphire Ventures, which led the previous round, joined other previous venture capitalists to fill in the rest of the investment. Verbit has been raising money steadily since it launched in 2017. The startup raised $60 million a year ago and the new round brings its total funding to more than $550 million. The company has put that money into developing technology and growing as a business, including the May acquisition of captioning tech provider VITAC.
“This funding round is a vote of confidence in our ability to solidify our position as the market leader within the transcription space,” Verbit CEO Tom Livne said in a statement. “We built a powerful technological platform to modernize this industry and our strategy to build vertically integrated, voice AI solutions has brought tremendous value to our customers and enabled their businesses to become more accessible.”
Transcription Future
Verbit uses humans and AI to handle transcription. The standard AI speech model is customized based on industry and client needs, and the automated transcription is further refined by a human to reach the 99.9% accuracy Verbit claims. The company’s media, legal, and higher education clients include the likes of CNN and Harvard and it . The startup reported nearly $100 million in annual revenue, a six-fold increase year-over-year. Verbit counts almost 500 people as employees, joined by 600 professional captioners and 35,000 freelance transcribers. The latest round is earmarked to upgrade Verbit’s system and widen its customer base, including further acquisitions. It will also help prep the startup to go public, as has been rumored for some time.
“Verbit is a special company combining exceptional technology-driven organic and inorganic growth in the transcription marketplace,” Third Point Ventures managing partner Robert Schwartz said. “It’s rare to encounter such a large, fragmented market ripe for digital transformation and simultaneous consolidation. Verbit’s exceptionally talented team has achieved scale and leadership in an incredibly short time. We are excited to significantly increase our investment in Verbit and look forward to continuing to contribute to the company’s evolution and growth trajectory.”
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