NantWorks, a conglomerate of healthcare education science and technology companies funded by billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong, has led a $2m investment into US-based developer of voice recognition technology Fluential, bringing the company’s total series A round to a close at $8m.
Founder and chief executive of Fluential, Farzad Ehsani, said: “With this investment, Fluential has been allowed to dramatically improve the voice assistance experience – particularly in the Quantified Self space – with technology that automatically understands context, content and even nuanced speech patterns and dialects so well that voice becomes an instantly rewarding and useful function for consumers.”
Fluential received its first stage of angel funding in 2011. The company holds six patents in speech recognition and natural language processing software. The company was founded under the name Sehda in 2001.
The company’s first consumer appliction will be released in Spring next year.