AI startup Papercup has successfully raised $20 million to help media and entertainment companies reach broader global audiences with its AI-powered dubbing platform. Founded by tech investor Jesse Shemen and machine learning engineer Jiameng Gao in 2017, the London-based firm has secured investments from 10 firms, including Octopus Ventures, Local Globe, Sands Capital and guardian Media Ventures.
Papercup’s dubbing platform promises to revolutionize the process of translating TV shows and films, which previously was costly and time-consuming. The AI-powered tool helps content creators translate their videos into multiple languages with human-sounding synthetic voices, at a base rate of $20 a minute – a fee that is half the average rate for manual translation.
The demand for translation between media companies is soaring as the US streaming market nears saturation. To date, Papercup has translated videos for Fremantle, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, Sky News, Bloomberg, and Insider and primarily focus on English to Spanish translations. In addition, the company is keen to let content creators regain control over their videos with the support of YouTube and enable them to add audio to their videos in multiple languages, making them more appealing to international audiences.
Simon King, a renowned speech-processing expert, serves as a research advisor to Papercup, while the startup is mindful of the concerns surrounding such an AI-powered tool and its abilities to clone voices and deceive people. Papercup’s CEO Jesse Shemen states that the company imposes strict quality control and will only work with clients that agree with its standards.
But as the company hopes to scale and expand, it is also looking at various ways of strengthening its safeguards, such as introducing an identifier mark on its video clips so listeners can tell they were synthetically produced. In the long term, Papercup seeks to extend its dubbing capabilities to other forms of content, including sports, comedy, and live video, as well as support more languages.
