Cambridge Innovation Capital leads AudioTelligence’s seed funding

Cambridge Innovation Capital leads AudioTelligence’s seed funding

10 September 2018

Cambridge Innovation Capital plc (CIC), a Cambridge-based builder of technology and healthcare companies, has led a £3.1 million seed funding round into AudioTelligence Limited, a company delivering real-time audio processing technology for the enhancement of Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) systems. Cambridge Enterprise, the commercialisation arm of the University of Cambridge, and two Cambridge-based business angels also participated.

Speech control is being used increasingly in consumer electronics, with smart speakers being the world’s fastest-growing consumer technology segment in the first quarter of 2018 driven by Amazon’s Echo, Google’s Home and several recent entrants such as Xiaomi.

AudioTelligence’s technology dramatically enhances the accuracy of ASR systems, such as those used in mobile devices, home assistants and voice-activated, hands-free automotive systems. It processes the output from low-cost uncalibrated microphones and delivers significant improvements in separating a speaker’s voice from background noise and other conversations. AudioTelligence’s technology also addresses other applications, such as the hearing assistance market.

Andrew Williamson, Investment Director at CIC said, “AudioTelligence’s source separation technologies have been built on world-leading research to provide a data-driven solution to the ‘cocktail party’ problem of isolating speech from a mix of other sounds. These technologies significantly outperform existing 'state-of-the art' commercially available solutions and have the potential to improve materially the real-world performance of a whole host of voice activated electronic devices.”

Ken Roberts, CEO of AudioTelligence added, “This investment will enable us to build out our team to commercialise our source separation technologies. We are delighted with the support our investors are providing and look forward to working with them as we grow AudioTelligence.”

The company is a spin-out from Cambridge-based CEDAR Audio Limited, a world leader in audio restoration, dialogue noise suppression and speech enhancement for the entertainment and audio forensic sectors. AudioTelligence also uses technology developed by the Signal Processing Group of the University of Cambridge, one of the leading global academic departments in this field.

Simon Godsill, Professor of Statistical Signal Processing at the University of Cambridge and chairman of AudioTelligence’s Technical Advisory Board said, “AudioTelligence’s systems combine cutting edge technologies developed within the Signal Processing Group at Cambridge with those from CEDAR. With this sound scientific basis, the spin-out AudioTelligence marks an exciting milestone in the commercialisation of this world-leading expertise.”

Elaine Loukes, Investment Manager at Cambridge Enterprise commented, “AudioTelligence is a spin-out from CEDAR Audio, which is the oldest company in our portfolio. It’s a real pleasure to be working with a new company that we know to have an excellent pedigree.”

ENDS

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About AudioTelligence

AudioTelligence is a spin-out company from CEDAR Audio Limited (for nearly 30 years the world leader in audio restoration, dialogue noise suppression and speech enhancement for the entertainment and audio forensic sectors) and the Signal Processing Group of Cambridge University, one of the top university departments in this field, worldwide.

​We lead the world in blind audio signal separation from multi-microphone captured audio, and our technologies greatly outperform existing 'state-of-the art' commercially available technologies such as beam forming, spectral masking, deep neural nets, non-negative matrix factorisation and independent component analysis (or ICA).

All our technologies are suitable for embedding in consumer products where the computing and power budgets are limited.

Our business model is IP licensing, and our team is experienced in delivering on-time and on-spec solutions to our partners.

About Cambridge Innovation Capital plc

CIC combines a unique relationship with the University of Cambridge with deep financial and industry links to support rapidly growing intellectual property rich companies in the Cambridge Cluster. The company is committed to building leading businesses from brilliant technologies, with the benefit of some of the most influential figures in the sector and a patient capital structure.

For more information visit www.cicplc.co.uk or follow us on Twitter at @CambsInnovation

About Cambridge Enterprise Limited

A wholly owned subsidiary of the University of Cambridge, Cambridge Enterprise is responsible for the commercialisation of University intellectual property. It provides access to early stage capital through the Cambridge Enterprise Seed Funds, University of Cambridge Enterprise Funds and Cambridge Enterprise Venture Partners, and offers business planning, mentoring and related programmes. Activities include management and licensing of intellectual property and patents, proof of concept funding and support for University staff and research groups wishing to provide expert advice or facilities to public and private sector organisations. For more information, please visit www.enterprise.cam.ac.uk or follow us on Twitter at @UCamEnterprise