Iris Audio, a London-based AI startup, has just raised $7 million in a Series A funding round led by Puma Private Equity. Iris Audio has developed an AI-based voice isolation technology that helps to improve the quality of audio in real time by eliminating disruptive background noises. This technology can be deployed to intercept communication channels, call centers, video and audio files, podcasts and audiobooks.
The startup is gaining a lot of traction due to its ability to reduce the average handling time for calls in call centers by 11%. This has been a great help for enterprise customers in the data analytics space, who need to clean up voice-to-text translations to achieve higher accuracy rates. All of their proprietary tech has been developed and patented by their internal team.
The startup operates its business as a SaaS enterprise and charges a monthly fee to use the technology on a per-user basis. Its scalability and strong revenue model resonated with Puma Private Equity, who led the funding round, along with existing investors such as the Ojjeh family, Tag Group, and cofounder of LLamasoft, Toby Brzoznowski.
Jacobi Anstruther, the founder and CEO of Iris Audio, expressed her delight at the investment and is eager to use the funding to expand their team and presence across the UK and US into the broader markets. Puma’s Investment Director Harriet Rosethorn expressed that the team and market fit were the primary reasons for their decision to back the technology.
The investment comes just after a string of successful AI startups such as Creative Fabrica, who secured £61 million in venture capital in January, or ElevenLabs, who managed to raise $2 million pre-seed in the same month and an additional $18 million shortly thereafter.
