Otter.ai announced it has raised $320 million from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund (CVF), which supports startups without diluting equity and focuses on returns from marketing spend. The company plans to use these funds for enterprise growth, go-to-market strategy, international expansion, and product innovation.

Otter.ai, which has been operating for nearly a decade, has raised a total of $50 million in funding, with its last round in 2021, according to PitchBook data. Last year, the company crossed $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR), and it is now approaching new milestones, though it has not provided updated figures.

The company reported that 40 million users have used its product to date, up from 25 million last year. However, the startup did not provide any numbers around its monthly active users or churn, which is a pertinent challenge in the crowded meeting note-taking space.

"Voice is one of the biggest untapped opportunities in enterprise AI, and Otter is at the forefront of it – a conviction that’s only deepened watching Otter’s growth," said Pranav Singhvi, Partner and Co-founder of CVF, General Catalyst.

"When Otter enables enterprises to capture critical voice data and turns it into actionable business insights, teams move faster, decisions get sharper, and productivity compounds across the organization, and that’s why it’s a strong partner for CVF."

The announcement follows a competitive landscape with well-funded meeting note-taking products like Fireflies.ai, Granola, and Read AI, as well as new entrants like Calendly, Wispr, and Superhuman, which acquired Fathom. Most of these notetakers aim to connect to enterprise systems and automate workflows based on meeting data.

Otter.ai did not say how it will retain customers in this competitive space, and it is experimenting with providing insights before, after, and during meetings. It has been testing a pre-brief feature with context from previous conversations and a Live Assist feature to let users ask questions to the AI assistant during meetings.

Source: techcrunch