Voice skins are a popular feature in AI-based voice assistants. They allow you to personalize the helpful but also monotonous and robotic speaking voices that you hear on services like Alexa. A startup is now raising funds to help it grow. It is creating voice skins that can be used across different services by different companies, as well as for third-parties to apply.
LOVO, a Berkeley, California-based artificial Intelligence (AI) voice and synthetic speech tool developer, closed a $4.5million pre-Series B round this week led by Kakao Investment and LG CNS. This IT solution affiliate of LG Group.
SkyDeck Fund was its previous investor. A private investor, Vice President of Finance at DoorDash Michael Kim joined the financing.
These funds will be used for research and development in artificial intelligence, synthetic speech, and to grow the team.
We intend to hire heavily in all functions, including machine learning, artificial Intelligence, product development, marketing, and business development. TechCrunch's chief operating officer Tom Lee, co-founder, said that the fund will also be used to secure resources like CPUs and GPUs.
Founded in November 2019, LOVO has 17 employees, including Charlie Choi, the chief executive officer, and Lee, the COO.
Lee stated that the company will double down on improving LOVOs' AI model, increase its AI voices, and create a better product than any currently available in the market.
Our vision is to be a global leader providing AI voices that touch people's hearts and emotions. We aim to decentralize content production. Lee stated that we want to be the platform for everything voice-related.
LOVO is a platform that allows individuals and enterprises to create voiceover content. This content can be used in marketing, elearning, customer service, and chatbots.
Co-founder and CEO Choi stated that users have created more than 5 million voice content since our platform launched a little more than a year ago.
LOVO's first product, LOVO Studio, was launched last year. It allows individuals and businesses to search for the voice they desire, create, and publish voiceover content. Developers can use LOVOs Voiceover API for text to speech conversion in real time, and integrate into their applications. Using LOVOs DIY voice Cloning service, users can also create their own voices using 15 minutes of script.
LOVO has more than 200 voice skins. These allow users to choose the right voice for them.
According to Lee, the global market for text-to-speech (TTS), is $3 billion and the global voiceover market is around $10 billion. Based on a Research Interviewers report, the Global TTS market will grow to $5.61 billion in 2028, from $1.94 billion for 2020.
Lee said that LOVO has already secured 50,000 users, more than 50 enterprise clients, including J.B. Hunt and Bouncer from the USA, CPA Canada and LG CNS as well as Shinhan Bank in South Korea.
Lee stated that LOVO's core markets include marketing, education and movies and games in entertainment, as well as AR/VR. He noted that the movie Spiral is the latest installment in the Saw Series and features LOVOs voice.
In the wake of receiving funding from a South Korean entertainment company, it is likely that LOVO will bring additional synergies to the entertainment industry.
J.H., VP of CEO Vision Office at Kakao Entertainment Ryu stated, Im excited about LOVOs synergies avec Kakao Entertainments future endeavours in the entertainment sector, especially with music. Ryu also said, AI technology is opening up new markets for audio content and we anticipate a future where an individual's voice will be used effectively as an intellectual property as well as an asset.
Chon Tang, Founding Partner of SkyDeck Fund, stated that audio is a unique form of information, but it can also be difficult to produce at large scale. LOVOs artificial intelligence-based synthesis platform outperforms other cloud-based solutions in terms of quality and cost.
LOVO is also preparing for further expansion into the international market. We already have a strong presence within the US, UK and Canada and we are receiving signals from other parts of Europe, South America, and Asia. Lee said that LOVO already has an office in South Korea, and plans to expand its presence into Europe.
