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Kotoba Technologies
Breaking language barriers with ultra-fast, real-time simultaneous interpretation
About Kotoba Technologies
Kotoba Technologies is a pioneer in real-time speech-generation AI, developing state-of-the-art foundation models designed to eliminate language friction globally. Founded in late 2023 by leading AI researchers from Cornell and the University of Washington, the company specializes in sub-second latency automatic speech recognition (ASR) and text-to-speech (TTS) technologies. Their flagship products, including the DOTSU iOS application, deliver simultaneous interpretation that anticipates the flow of speech, providing translations up to 0.5 seconds before a speaker finishes talking.
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The company's core technological advantage lies in its high-performance models, such as Kotoba-Whisper, which achieves inference speeds over six times faster than industry standards like OpenAI's Whisper. These models are trained on massive computational resources, including Japan's Fugaku supercomputer, allowing for high-precision outcomes in culturally and linguistically nuanced languages like Japanese. Beyond its consumer-facing app, Kotoba provides enterprise-grade APIs and model licensing for "Big Tech" and global firms, enabling the integration of ultra-fast voice agents into remote meetings, wearables, and edge devices.
Since its inception, Kotoba Technologies has rapidly transitioned from research and development to commercial rollout, supported by prominent investors including Globis Capital Partners and high-profile angel investors. The startup has been recognized for its world-leading AI simultaneous interpretation and was selected for Japan's prestigious GENIAC generative AI project. With offices in Seattle and Tokyo, the team continues to scale its mission of providing "human-interpreter quality" speech-to-speech translation to empower business and research across the globe.
At a glance
- Status
- Operational
- Founded
- 2023
- Headquarters
- Tokyo, Japan
- Employees
- 18
- Open positions
- 1
- Dealroom signal
- 87.1/100
- Sector
- AI, Speech Recognition, Speech, Core AI, Interactive Voice Response, Generative AI, genAI Model Maker, genAI Applications
- Technology
- Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing
- Business model
- SaaS
- Client focus
- b2b, b2c
Knowledge graph
More headlines
Funding history
Company financing events and reported valuations.
| Deal type | Date | Amount | Valuation | Investors | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEEDOther financing | Jun 2026 | $10M | $40M | Kindred Ventures · Salesforce Ventures · Sony Innovation Fund | ↗ |
| SERIES AOther financing | Jun 2025 | $12M | $47M | Globis Capital Partners · Thomas Wolf · Joi Ito · SIP Global Partners | ↗ |
Growth signals
Latest recorded traffic for Kotoba Technologies is 23K monthly website visits, down 69.3% over the last three months. Kotoba Technologies's team grew 38.5% over the past year.
Open positions
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Investments and acquisitions
Recent portfolio relationships for companies that also act as investors or acquirers.
Investors
From Dealroom's funding and investor records, grouped by the round each investor first entered.
Seed4 investors entered at this stage
SIP Global Partners
Kindred Ventures
Salesforce Ventures
Sony Innovation Fund
Series A4 investors entered at this stage
Globis Capital Partners
Thomas Wolf
Joi Ito
Boost Capital
Source: Dealroom Talent Intelligence.
Global footprint
team presence
Market sentiment
An AI-synthesised read of the highest-engagement posts about Kotoba Technologies on X, ranked by likes and reposts, corporate channels excluded.
Reading the room on X — pulling top posts and synthesizing themes…
Source: X recent search ranked by engagement (likes + retweets) · Synthesis by Claude · Cached for 1 hour
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