Cisco has acquired real-time translation startup EzDubs. The deal was worth an undisclosed amount. Founded in 2023 by Padmanabhan Krishnamurthy, Amrutavarsh Kinagi and Karim Nassar, EzDubs was backed by Y Combinator and raised $4.2 million in a round led by Venture Highway. Nassar previously worked on Cisco’s Speech AI team.
Cisco said the EzDubs technology will be integrated into the Cisco Collaboration platform and will provide real-time translation functionality in products like Webex while preserving the speaker’s voice and emotion. The technology may also be open to partners and developers. Snorre Kjesbu, vice president of Cisco Collaboration, said that together with the EzDubs team, they plan to create a new era in collaboration technologies.
EzDubs will shut down its consumer-facing apps on December 15. In a blog post, the startup thanked users for their success with the video dubbing tool and real-time translation technology.
In recent months, several acquisitions have taken place in the translation technology sector: in July, TransPerfect acquired Unbabel, and this month, Palabra AI acquired Talo. Experts say that the main demand for translation services is formed in the corporate communications market, and the market value in this area is about $ 40 billion.
