Cisco Buys AI Translation Startup EzDubs to Power Communication Platform
Networking technology leader Cisco has completed the purchase of EzDubs, an artificial intelligence translation company that emerged from Y Combinator’s startup program. The acquisition announcement came over the weekend, though Cisco has not revealed the financial terms of the transaction.
The deal marks a significant move for Cisco as the company seeks to strengthen its communication tools with advanced translation capabilities. EzDubs specialized in providing real-time translation services that maintain the speaker’s original voice characteristics, a technology that Cisco plans to integrate into its existing collaboration products.
EzDubs Background and Founding Team
EzDubs was established in 2023 by three co-founders: Padmanabhan Krishnamurthy, Amrutavarsh Kinagi, and Kareem Nassar. The startup’s connection to Cisco runs deeper than just this acquisition, as Nassar previously held a position within Cisco’s Speech AI division before launching the translation company.
The startup successfully raised $4.2 million in seed funding, with Venture Highway leading the investment round. Venture Highway was created by Neeraj Arora, who formerly served as WhatsApp’s chief business officer. The funding round also attracted several notable technology leaders, including Replit CEO Amjad Masad, Replit President Michele Catasta, Applied Intuition CEO Qasar Younis, and Replicate CEO Ben Firshman.
Integration Plans for Cisco Collaboration Platform
Cisco has outlined plans to incorporate EzDubs’ translation technology into its Cisco Collaboration platform, which encompasses both hardware and software solutions. This integration will bring live translation features to popular Cisco products, including Webex video calling and messaging services.
The networking giant also indicated that the translation technology could be made available to business partners and software developers, potentially expanding the reach of the voice-preserving translation capabilities beyond Cisco’s own product lineup.
Snorre Kjesbu, Senior Vice President of Collaboration at Cisco, commented on the acquisition’s potential impact. He stated that the EzDubs team would work alongside Cisco’s existing product, engineering, and go-to-market divisions to create new industry standards where artificial intelligence truly empowers collaboration rather than simply supporting it.
End of Consumer Services and Market Context
As part of the Cisco EzDubs acquisition, the startup will discontinue its consumer-facing applications by December 15. These apps provided call translation services across more than 30 languages, serving individual users who needed real-time communication assistance.
In their farewell message, the EzDubs team reflected on their accomplishments, including the creation of the world’s first video dubbing tool that generated millions of views on social media platform X. They also highlighted their success in enabling real-time phone call translation that preserved both voice characteristics and emotional tone across dozens of languages.
The translation services market represents a substantial business opportunity, with industry reports estimating its value at approximately $40 billion. This market size has attracted multiple recent acquisitions in the space, including Seven Seven Six-backed Palabra AI’s purchase of live communication platform Talo earlier this month, and TransPerfect’s acquisition of Portuguese translation startup Unbabel in July.
The Cisco EzDubs acquisition raises questions about the viability of consumer-focused translation services compared to enterprise communication solutions, where larger financial opportunities and market demand appear to exist. This shift from consumer to enterprise applications reflects broader trends in the technology sector, where business-to-business solutions often provide more sustainable revenue models than consumer products.
