Cisco has acquired EzDubs, a startup backed by the American incubator Y Combinator, known for its real-time speech translation that preserves the speaker's tone and intonation. Cisco will integrate EzDubs' real-time translation technology into the Webex platform.

 

EzDubs was founded in 2023 by Padmanabhan Krishnamurthy, Amrutavarsh Kinagi, and Kareem Nassar. The company focused on translating spoken conversations during phone calls while preserving the speaker's original voice, allowing users to hear the translated dialogue without losing emotional cues or natural intonation. Before co-founding the company, Nassar worked in Cisco's speech group, which gave him familiarity with the company's communications technologies and product environment.

EzDubs attracted particular attention for its consumer-focused solutions. Following the acquisition, EzDubs will discontinue all consumer-focused apps (later this year). The system supported over 30 languages ​​and enabled voice calls on both mobile and desktop platforms. It was designed to work during ongoing conversations rather than processing recordings afterward. This emphasis on immediacy differentiated EzDubs from other established translation products, which typically focus on text-based searches, document translation, or offline sentence conversion.

Cisco plans to leverage the technology of Integrate EzDubs into his Collaboration group, which includes Webex calling, conferencing, and messaging. Once integrated, customers will have access to real-time translated speech as part of their existing communication workflows. Cisco also stated that partners and developers will be able to access the technology for broader use within its platform. Whether the technology will be integrated into other Cisco solutions is unclear.

(Cisco)

merger/acquisition, Technology