Israel’s Verbit Raises $250M Series E Funding At $2B Valuation

US-Israeli AI-based transcription and captioning startup Verbit has raised $250 million in a Series E funding round after receiving a $150 million primary investment and $100 million in secondary transactions, the company said in an announcement on Tuesday.

This secures the company’s position as a unicorn and doubles its valuation to $2 billion.

The round was led by Third Point Ventures, with additional participation by existing investors Sapphire Ventures, More Capital, Disruptive AI, Vertex Growth, 40North, Samsung Next, and TCP.

Verbit’s total funding now exceeds $550 million (including secondary transactions) since the company’s inception in 2017.

Founded four years ago by Eric Shellef, Kobi Ben Tzvi, and Tom Livne, Verbit harnesses artificial and human intelligence to provide a smart transcription and captioning solution. The company’s technology, built on adaptive algorithms, generates accurate speech-to-text files from video and audio.

The company raised a whopping $157 million for its Series D round last May.

Verbit said the round demonstrates investor confidence in the company’s promise to revolutionize the $30 billion transcription market.

The company’s employee headcount has grown to 470, along with 35,000 freelancer transcribers and 600 professional captioners globally. Verbit also serves as the trusted captioning and transcription partner for over 2,000 customers across the media, education, corporate, legal, and government.

Verbit will use the investment to pursue further M&A, adding scale and new capabilities, as well as providing enhanced value to its media, education, corporate, legal, and government clients.

“This funding round is a vote of confidence in our ability to solidify our position as the market leader within the transcription space,” said Tom Livne, CEO and founder of Verbit. “We built a powerful technological platform to modernize this industry and our strategy to build vertically integrated, voice AI solutions has brought tremendous value to our customers and enabled their businesses to become more accessible.” 

“Verbit is a special company combining exceptional technology-driven organic and inorganic growth in the transcription marketplace,” said Robert Schwartz, managing partner at Third Point Ventures, who will join Verbit’s board of directors. “It’s rare to encounter such a large, fragmented market ripe for digital transformation and simultaneous consolidation. Verbit’s exceptionally talented team has achieved scale and leadership in an incredibly short time. We are excited to significantly increase our investment in Verbit and look forward to continuing to contribute to the company’s evolution and growth trajectory.”