Aiqudo Launches with $5.2M in Funding for Voice AI Platform that Executes Actions in Mobile Apps People Prefer to Use
San Jose, California (PRWEB) July 26, 2017 -- In a new world of voice computing, one refrain is being heard over and over again: my digital assistant can’t do very much that’s useful. Current virtual assistants don’t connect to familiar apps on mobile devices that people prefer to use. Today, Aiqudo (“eye-cue-doe”), a software pioneer that lets people use voice commands to execute actions in mobile apps, announced its launch with $5.2 million in Series A funding from Atlantic Bridge Capital and the acquisition of Belfast, Ireland’s Sophia. Aiqudo plans to announce the availability of its software (SDK) for developers and partners, its first virtual-assistant integrations and a mobile app for consumers in beta later this summer.
Aiqudo gives consumers the freedom to use voice commands to access and invoke actions within mobile apps they prefer, already know, love and use regularly. Its software eliminates the silos that mobile apps live in today and lets people move seamlessly from one action to the next using natural voice commands. There’s no longer a need to find and open individual apps, navigate to what they need and tap for actions. Instead, people will be able to voice-enable their preferred mobile apps on smartphones, use apps hands-free while driving in their cars, or use them with their favorite virtual assistants at home.
"With Aiqudo, people can just speak and get things done. They can use their voices to execute actions in the mobile apps they love instead of using top-down tree menus and tapping through a series of screens,” says John Foster, Aiqudo CEO and co-founder. “We make virtual assistants far more useful and compelling to consumers because people have a much broader set of mobile app options to control by voice instead of being forced to use the walled gardens and proprietary offerings on the virtual assistant market today.”
Aiqudo’s Voice-to-Action platform lets app developers add a voice-powered interface that enables their apps to understand natural-language commands through a simple onboarding process that takes minutes without coding anything or needing to create an API. App developers remain in control of the brand experience within their app, while providing the convenience and ease-of-use of a voice interface. App developers also benefit from Aiqudo’s platform integrations with popular virtual assistants. They gain broadened access to new voice-computing ecosystems that are growing rapidly without having to create a new interface for each platform.
“We are excited to be active investors in Aiqudo which we strongly believe is enabling a great user and developer experience through its unique voice AI platform that makes digital assistants truly useful. We see the market for voice AI systems based on machine learning and natural language processing primed for explosive growth,” says Atlantic Bridge Capital Managing Partner Kevin Dillon.
With the acquisition of the Sophia team and its machine-learning technology, Aiqudo has added a powerful AI platform and a seasoned team of data scientists and machine-learning experts to enable significant acceleration of its product development. The addition of 17 Sophia patents to Aiqudo’s current IP creates a larger patent portfolio that spans its Voice-to-Action AI platform.
“We envision a future where humans interact naturally and effortlessly with technology, without being forced to learn new skills,” says Rajat Mukherjee, Aiqudo CTO and co-founder. “We’ve designed the world’s first software platform that understands users' voice-command intent and translates that into actions or series of actions in mobile apps across personal mobile devices. The amount of time that people around the world spend in mobile apps today – roughly one trillion hours annually – speaks to how much we love our mobile apps and how much they do for us. Now with Aiqudo, it’s easier than ever to get things done faster by simply speaking naturally, and our software turns commands into actions in apps.”
Since its initial release in October 2011, Apple’s intelligent personal assistant Siri leads the market with 41.4 million monthly active users in the U.S., according to a new report from measurement firm Verto Analytics this month. Yet, Siri usage and engagement has dropped since last year, as Alexa and Cortana grew reports TechCrunch. Of the top 50 most downloaded apps in Apple’s App store, only a handful are fully functional with Siri, a USA TODAY analysis found.
“Our new Voice-to-Action platform will make it easy for virtual assistants to make more mobile apps available to consumers so they’re free to use the apps they prefer in a less clunky way. Developers can also get the in game quickly and voice-enable more apps without having to develop complex technology in-house,” says Foster. “We strongly believe that voice will become the interface of the future to access and control our digital lives so we move seamlessly and intuitively using natural-language commands between asking, navigating, buying and playing across a variety of devices.”
To view product demo videos, visit Aiqudo’s YouTube channel.
About Aiqudo
Aiqudo (pronounced: “eye-cue-doe”) is a software pioneer that connects the nascent world of digital voice assistants to the useful, mature world of mobile apps through its Voice-to-Action™ platform. It lets people use voice commands to execute actions in mobile apps across devices. Aiqudo’s SaaS platform uses machine learning (AI) to understand natural-language requests and then triggers instant actions via mobile apps consumers prefer to use to get things done quickly and with less effort. For more info, visit: http://www.aiqudo.com
Chris Knight, Divino Group, +1 (415) 786-9226, [email protected]
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