An AI audio startup founded by former Palantir and Acast staffers has raised $3 million in a seed round backed by investors, including Y Combinator and Diary of a CEO host Steven Bartlett.
London-based Wondercraft, founded in 2022, aims to become the "Canva of audio." The company allows users to generate multi-purpose audio just by typing in speech.
Wondercraft's use cases range from podcasting and narration for audiobooks and adverts to corporate communications and training. It also offers additional audio tools, such as script assistants and video generation, which cuts the time and cost otherwise spent on manually editing projects.
Ex-Palantir engineers Dimitris Nikolaou and Youssef Rizk, and former Acast chief operations officer Oskar Serrander set up the company.
Nikolaou said he likened the startup to Canva because he wanted to "empower everyone to be an audio creator."
The startup has partnered with AI voice intelligence unicorn ElevenLabs, which has developed a tool to replicate synthetic voices, to allow users to translate and dub their projects into multiple different languages.
The platform aims to make translation and dubbing more affordable and efficient, especially for independent creators, said cofounder Serrander.
The company first launched its beta product in 2023 and counts the likes of Diary of a CEO and CoinDesk among its 30,000-strong user base.
The seed round was led by Boston-based early-stage venture capital firm Will Ventures, which has backed the likes of AI startups Rupie and Lambent. Additional funding came from famed accelerator Y Combinator, ElevenLabs, and Diary of a CEO founder Steven Bartlett.
With the fresh funding, Wondercraft will develop the platform further and extend a wider range of features to its users.
Check out the 9-slide deck used to raise the fresh funds:
Comments
Leave a Comment