Cisco acquires translation startup EzDubs

Cisco, a leader in networking technology, has taken a significant step by acquiring EzDubs, a startup renowned for its cutting-edge real-time translation services. The announcement of this acquisition came over the weekend, although the financial details of the deal have not been disclosed. Founded in 2023 by Padmanabhan Krishnamurthy, Amrutavarsh Kinagi, and Kareem Nassar, EzDubs gained traction by securing $4.2 million in seed funding from prominent investors, including Venture Highway, led by Neeraj Arora, a former chief business officer at WhatsApp. Other notable backers include Replit's CEO Amjad Masad and Applied Intuition's CEO Qasar Younis. Cisco has expressed intentions to integrate EzDubs' innovative technology into its extensive Cisco Collaboration platform, which encompasses both hardware and software solutions. This integration promises to enhance user experience by introducing features like live translation capabilities in Webex video calls and messaging services. Moreover, Cisco hinted at the possibility of making this voice-preserving translation technology available to partners and developers. "The EzDubs team will join Cisco Collaboration, collaborating closely with our product and engineering teams to redefine the collaborative landscape, ensuring AI not only supports but empowers collaboration," stated Snorre Kjesbu, Cisco's Senior Vice President of Collaboration. While Cisco has not confirmed whether the entire EzDubs team will be joining their ranks, the startup has announced plans to discontinue its consumer applications, which provided translation services for over 30 languages, by December 15. In a heartfelt blog post, the EzDubs team reflected on their journey, highlighting their achievements, including the launch of the world’s first video dubbing tool that gained widespread attention on social media. The acquisition of EzDubs comes amid a flurry of activity in the translation sector, with recent deals such as Palabra AI's acquisition of Talo and TransPerfect's buyout of Unbabel. This trend raises questions about the sustainability of consumer-focused translation services in light of the growing demand and financial opportunities within the enterprise communication market, which is valued at approximately $40 billion.