Roosh Ventures, a Ukrainian investment fund co-founded by Serhiy Tokarev, has announced a new investment in Gladia, a Paris-based startup specializing in AI-powered transcription and audio analytics solutions. The announcement, made via LinkedIn, highlights the potential of Gladia's technology to revolutionize industries reliant on real-time speech processing, particularly in global markets where linguistic diversity and accents present significant challenges.
The funding round of $16 million was led by XAnge, with participation from Illuminate Financial, XTX Ventures, Athletico Ventures, Gaingels, Mana Ventures, Motier Ventures, and Soma Capital. Commenting on the investment, Serhiy Tokarev referred to Gladia as a “game-changer” for companies operating in multilingual environments.
Gladia's Breakthrough in Audio Processing
Founded in 2022 by Jean-Louis Quéguiner and Jonathan Soto, Gladia is on a mission to build a universal audio infrastructure for real-time speech processing. The platform provides multilingual tools capable of recognizing over 100 languages and adapting to various accents in real-time. “They’re creating a comprehensive solution for call centers and AI assistants,” said Serhiy Tokarev. “Their real-time audio transcription and analysis capabilities are unmatched, offering businesses tools to operate seamlessly across linguistic barriers.”
One of Gladia's standout features is its speed. Its engine delivers transcription and analytics results in under 300 milliseconds, ensuring that businesses can obtain accurate data without delays or quality loss. This innovation is already making an impact, with over 600 companies—including Attention, Circleback, and Method Financial—among the platform's 70,000 users. Call centers using Gladia report a 30% reduction in conversation time due to improved transcription accuracy.
Competitive Edge and Industry Applications
Gladia faces competition from platforms like Otter.ai and Fireflies.ai but stands out with unique capabilities. According to co-founder Jean-Louis Quéguiner, Gladia’s ability to seamlessly switch languages during a conversation—known as “code-switching”—and handle strong accents sets it apart. This multilingual flexibility is invaluable in industries requiring precise, real-time communication.
Additionally, Gladia's engine extracts critical insights from calls, such as caller sentiment, key details, and conversation summaries, in less than a second. This feature enables businesses to generate comprehensive transcripts and actionable insights instantly, streamlining operations and improving decision-making.
“Companies spend significant resources integrating various AI tools into their platforms. Gladia solves this by offering a single API compatible with all major tech stacks, including SIP, VoIP, FreeSwitch, and Asterisk,” explained Jonathan Soto, Gladia’s CTO. This seamless integration enhances customer support capabilities while boosting operational efficiency.
Future Growth and Roosh's Role
The new funding will support Gladia’s plans to expand its team and accelerate international growth. The company aims to launch a universal suite of AI tools for audio processing, incorporating large language models (LLMs) and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). Additionally, Gladia is developing a call center-as-a-service (CCaaS) solution to automate customer support and enhance agent performance.
Serhiy Tokarev expressed pride in Roosh Ventures’ involvement, stating, “All of us in Roosh Ventures are proud to support this startup as they scale this amazing technology.” Tokarev also emphasized the transformative potential of Gladia’s solutions, recalling personal experiences with call transcription services that struggled with non-English languages and diverse accents.
About Roosh Ventures
Roosh Ventures is a Ukrainian investment fund supporting tech startups in AI/ML, Gaming, Fintech, Consumer & Entertainment Apps, and Marketing & AdTech. The fund has backed over 40 startups, reinvesting returns from successful ventures to foster innovation in the tech industry.
