Wispr Secures $280 Million in Series B Funding to Expand AI Dictation Services
Wispr, a startup specializing in AI dictation technology, announced on Monday that it has raised $280 million in Series B funding led by Menlo Ventures, achieving a valuation of $2 billion. This funding will facilitate Wispr’s expansion into new areas, particularly with the launch of its note-taker tool designed for meetings.
To date, Wispr has raised a total of $361 million, marking this latest round as its second in less than 10 months. The influx of capital arrives amid heightened competition in the dictation market from applications like Willow, Monolouge, Aqua, and Superwhisper, as well as various developers offering free or lower-cost tools aimed at prosumers.
Returning investors, including Notable Capital, NEA, Neo Ventures, 8VC, and MVP Ventures, participated in this funding round, along with new contributors such as Acrew, Forerunner, Goodwater, Peak XV, Together Fund, and PLUS Capital.
In conjunction with the funding announcement, Wispr revealed the introduction of a new model named Canto, aimed at enhancing the accuracy of speech recognition. The company noted that users had recently reported a decline in the quality of dictation output from Wispr Flow, and Canto is expected to reduce error rates from 30% to under 10%.
Since launching its dictation app on Android last November, Wispr has also scaled its go-to-market teams in key regions such as India and the U.K. Additionally, the company is collaborating with hardware manufacturers like the Oasis ring, allowing users to dictate without the need for loud speaking. Wispr’s note-taker tool is focused on competing with existing services such as Granola, Fireflies, and Read AI, and it includes features for summarizing discussions and creating actionable items.
In a move to further innovate, Wispr launched Wispr Interface Labs last month under the leadership of Ariya Rastrow, an early contributor to Amazon Alexa. This initiative aims to develop new interfaces for improving human-computer interaction.
