Dubber is ramping up its AI capabilities after acquiring Brisbane startup Notiv for $6.6 million

SIMON THOMSEN- SEPTEMBER 20, 20212 MIN READ

The Notiv team, including co-founders Chris Raethke and Dr Iain McCowan

ASX-listed voice data company Dubber (ASX: DUB) has acquired Brisbane tech startup Notiv in a deal worth $6.6 million.

The M&A deal will see Dubber accelerate its artificial intelligence program and capabilities.

Notiv was founded by tech industry veterans Chris Raethke, a BugCrowd co-founder, and Dr Iain McCowan in 2018 to improve meeting note taking. It uses AI and digital signal processing technologies to record and transcribe meeting discussions whether on the phone, online or in person. It can also be used for presentations, interviews or pitches.

The startup raised $1.4 million in 2019 from Steve Baxter’s Transition Level Investments, Full Circle VC and Black Sheep Capital, less than a year after the venture came into being.

Dubber acquired 100% of Notiv through its US-based parent company Pinch Labs, Inc. in a deal that includes A$5.15 million paid in cash at completion and the balance, representing 24.8% of the consideration, in 386,277 Dubber fully paid ordinary shares at A$3.75.

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Key management and employees are to stay with the business, including Chris Raethke as CEO and Dr McCowan as CTO

Dubber CEO Steve McGovern said the Notiv team will form the core of the Dubber AI Labs to develop future AI capabilities, as well as giving his company the ability to offer Notive to its global customer base.

“One of our fundamental beliefs is that artificial intelligence has a part to play as a standard feature of every call and conversation. Notiv is a significant step towards achieving this in that it has clear and defined use cases for everyone from individuals to the largest of enterprises,” he said.

“With Notiv, Dubber will now have the ability to automatically take notes and create action items on every call. We are confident that our telecommunications carrier and service provider partners will see enormous potential for revenue-generating value-added services for their customers at scale.”

Notiv will be available to Dubber Foundation Partners, select service and solution providers and sold alongside other Dubber solutions for businesses and government.

Chris Raethke said they were proud of what they’d developed and selling was the right step for the startup’s growth.

“The ability to roll out Notiv globally with the world’s leading service providers is an unmissable opportunity. The chance to join the Dubber growth journey at this time and expand Dubber’s AI and NLP capabilities is exciting for all of us,” he said.

“We are confident that the combination of Dubber and Notiv will deliver incredible value to customers, businesses and our fellow shareholders alike.”

Dubber CTO James Slaney said Notiv will accelerate the company’s existing AI program in three ways.

“First, we gain an exciting and proven product built to answer a compelling use case – making meetings better by automatically enabling voice data to replace or improve note taking. For example, a tradesperson on a mobile phone call could instantly capture customer requests and share the actions,” he said.

“Second, we believe that the ability to deliver this capability directly from the network will be a compelling proposition for both existing and new service provider partners.

“Finally, Notiv will provide Dubber with a world-class team with deep expertise in AI and data science. Together we will accelerate our overall product roadmap and capabilities and advance our AI, digital signal processing and natural language processing technologies.”