- Descript — a service that enables users to record, edit, mix, collaborate, and master audio and video — announced it closed $15 million in funding
Descript, a service that enables users to record, edit, mix, collaborate, and master audio and video, announced it closed $15 million in funding. And Descript also announced that it acquired Lyrebird, which is an online voice synthesis company.
Founded by Alexandre de Brebisson, Kundan Kumar, and Jose Sotelo in 2017, Lyrebird raised $120,0000 and participated in the Y Combinator startup accelerator program prior to the acquisition. The terms of the acquisition were undisclosed.
Descript had acquired Lyrebird to power its Overdub feature, which enables podcast brands to easily add audio to previously recorded content. With Descript, podcast brands can record content with the software and automatically generate transcripts.
Descript was founded by Andrew Mason, who is the co-founder and former CEO of Groupon.
Detour spun Descript out of the company last year. And the Detour software — which features walking tour audio — was acquired by Bose around April 2018.
Descript also has a transcription editor feature that enables users to correct text inline without having to change the audio. And If a user has Lyrebird synthetic replica of their voice, then they can edit the transcript in the text editor. From there, Descript will insert the audio.
“Audio is the easiest kind of content to create— you just open your mouth — but the hardest to edit. Descript and Overdub change that — and, as a result, will change the way we use audio (at least we think so). Now you aren’t limited to the words you captured in the voice booth — making corrections is as simple as typing them,” said Mason in a blog post. “Invariably, to first experience Overdub is to experience wunderschrecken — a simultaneous feeling of wonder and dread. Rest assured, you can only use Overdub on your own voice. We built this feature to save you the tedium of re-recording/splicing time every time you make an editorial change, not as a way make deep fakes.”
This round of funding was provided by Andreessen Horowitz and Redpoint.
