Wispr Raises $280 Million to Expand Voice AI Tools

AI startup Wispr raised $280 million in Series B funding, bringing its total funding to $361 million and establishing a company valuation of $2 billion. The round was led by Menlo Ventures with participation from Notable Capital, NEA, Neo Ventures, 8VC, and several professional athletes.

The company is using the capital to expand beyond its core dictation app, Wispr Flow. This expansion includes the creation of Wispr Interface Labs to explore new human-computer interfaces and the development of meeting tools. To improve output quality following user complaints, Wispr is launching Canto, a new speech-understanding model designed to reduce error rates from 30% to under 10%.

Wispr is also pursuing hardware integrations, partnering with manufacturers such as the Oasis ring to facilitate discreet dictation. Co-founders Tanay Kothari and Sahaj Garg have emphasized the importance of trust and security as the company seeks to create systems that allow AI to act on behalf of users.