KUDO

KUDO provides language-as-a-service for virtual and hybrid meetings, addressing the need for multilingual communication in a globalized business environment. The New York-based company was founded in 2017 by Fardad Zabetian, Ewandro Magalhaes, Parham Akhavan, and Annabelle Gazzo. The founding team combines deep expertise in conference technology and professional interpretation. CEO Fardad Zabetian is a serial entrepreneur with a history of creating companies focused on conference hardware and interpretation equipment, including Media Vision and Conference Rental USA. His work has included outfitting major institutions and contributing to the redesign of the United Nations' meeting facilities. Co-founder Ewandro Magalhães is a renowned conference interpreter who previously served as a chief interpreter within the United Nations system, bringing decades of high-level language services experience to the venture. Parham Akhavan, the founding CTO, is a technologist with extensive startup experience across various sectors.

The company's business model revolves around a cloud-based platform that integrates with major video conferencing providers, offering clients two primary solutions to break language barriers. The first is a marketplace for booking professional human interpreters from a network of over 12,000 specialists covering more than 200 spoken and sign languages. This service caters to clients requiring nuanced, high-stakes interpretation for events like international summits and corporate board meetings. Revenue is generated through subscriptions and on-demand booking fees. The second offering is KUDO AI, a speech-to-speech translation tool that provides real-time audio and captions in over 28 languages for one-to-many settings such as webinars and training sessions. This dual approach allows KUDO to serve a wide range of clients, from Fortune 500 companies and government bodies like NATO and the U.S. Air Force to smaller organizations.

Since its inception, KUDO has achieved significant milestones, including launching its core KUDO Meeting platform in 2017, adding sign language support in 2019, and introducing on-demand interpreter booking in 2022. The company experienced explosive growth during the pandemic, with demand increasing by over 3,500% in 2020. KUDO has raised a total of $27 million in funding through seed and Series A rounds, with investors including Felicis Ventures, Maverick Ventures, and Bill Ackman. In 2024, the company was awarded four US patents for its technology and saw a 453% increase in the usage of its AI solution.

Keywords: multilingual meetings, language-as-a-service, real-time interpretation, video conferencing translation, remote simultaneous interpretation, interpreter marketplace, AI speech translation, virtual events platform, conference interpretation, global communication, sign language interpretation, hybrid meetings, online meetings, language technology, Fardad Zabetian, Ewandro Magalhaes, enterprise communication, corporate training, global collaboration, webinar translation, multilingual captions, cross-border communication