Atexto

About Atexto

Atexto operates as a crucial link in the artificial intelligence and machine learning sector, providing the essential data needed to train speech recognition engines. Founded in 2016 by Brenda Mana Pastrian and Esteban Gorupicz, the company facilitates the creation, collection, annotation, and transcription of audio data. This allows its clients, primarily companies developing voice assistants and other speech-to-text applications, to test, tune, and ultimately improve the accuracy of their AI models.

The business model is twofold. On one side, it serves enterprises by offering a platform to manage audio data projects, providing solutions like machine learning transcripts, data collection, and benchmark reports. On the other side, it functions as a crowdsourcing platform, engaging a global community of collaborators. These individuals earn money by performing transcription and data labeling tasks from home, converting audio files into text. This process is designed to be accessible, requiring no specific academic background and offering flexibility without set schedules. Atexto generates revenue by catering to the growing demand in the voice recognition market, which is projected for significant expansion as more industries adopt AI in their communication systems.

The platform, formerly known as QuieroTranscrito, supports over 24 languages and their various accents, ensuring a diverse and comprehensive dataset. This diversity is a key selling point, as it helps developers remove biases related to race, gender, age, and dialect from their machine learning models. For its corporate clients, Atexto provides live visibility into the progress of transcription projects and allows them to download completed files. For its individual collaborators, the platform has a straightforward payment system, with earnings redeemable via PayPal upon reaching a $10 minimum.

Financially, Atexto has secured a total of $500K in funding over two rounds. An initial grant of $40K from Start-Up Chile in May 2018 was followed by a significant Seed round of $500K on January 10, 2020. This later round was led by Redwood Ventures and included participation from other investors such as 500 Global and MC Capital, indicating confidence in the company's trajectory and business model.