Namecoach, a Palo Alto, CA-based technology company that solves name mispronunciation and gender communication in critical settings, secured $8 million in Series A funding.
The round was led by Impact America Fund, with participation from Authentic Ventures, Metaplanet, Founders Fund, Engage VC, Ai Sprouts Fund I, GTM Fund, 640 Oxford, Transcend Network, Asymmetry Ventures, Forefront Venture Partners, Network.VC, Harbor Street Ventures, and Seabed VC.
The funds will be used to expand its engineering team and invest in data science and AI staff to accelerate the core tech roadmap validated by customers. The company will also expand its platform integrations to accelerate toward platform ubiquity.
Namecoach’s simple and easy-to-learn audio pronunciation technology supports the growing need of organizations to create a culture of inclusion and belonging.
“Your name is central to your identity, and accurate pronunciation sets the tone for a positive interaction for both parties,” says Praveen Shanbhag, CEO of Namecoach. Shanbhag continues, “We are on a mission to make name mispronunciation a thing of the past for everyone. With the help of our capital partners, we will continue to develop new integrations and features to solve name pronunciation for a range of users and use cases.”
The company has more than 300 customers and partners, including Salesforce and Microsoft, and will release a direct-to-consumer product in 2023.
Company: NameCoach Inc.
Raised: $8.0M
Round: Series A
Funding Month: November 2022
Lead Investors: Impact America Fund
Additional Investors: Authentic Ventures, Metaplanet, Founders Fund, Engage VC, Ai Sprouts Fund I, GTM Fund, 640 Oxford, Transcend Network, Asymmetry Ventures, Forefront Venture Partners, Network.VC, Harbor Street Ventures, and Seabed VC
Company Website: https://cloud.name-coach.com/
Software Category: Name Pronunciation tools
About the Company: NameCoach is a SaaS platform that primarily provides voice recordings of names so that people can far more easily learn and remember how to say them. Namecoach software embeds accurate, context-aware audio name pronunciation buttons in the tools people use every day, enabling users to pronounce any name with ease and confidence. By providing buttons in systems including Salesforce Canvas, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Outlook, and Google Workspace, Namecoach serves educators, sales reps, customer support agents, call centers, recruiters, and HR departments for corporate diversity, inclusion, and belonging. Namecoach uses an AI system to predict the correct pronunciation when someone’s name has multiple correct pronunciations, based on factors like nationality, ethnicity, gender, and location. Namecoach AI will help with every element of voice interactions and will plug into user workflows, before, during, and after voice conversations in any context.
Source: https://cloud.name-coach.com/namecoach-lands-8-million-series-a/