PerSay
PerSay develops advanced voice-based biometric technologies.
| Date | Investors | Amount | Round |
|---|---|---|---|
| investor investor | €0.0 | round | |
| investor | €0.0 | round | |
* | N/A | Acquisition | |
| Total Funding | 000k | ||
PerSay was an Israeli technology firm specializing in voice biometrics, founded in February 2000 by Renana Peres. The company originated as a spin-off from Verint Systems, which was part of the Comverse Technology group. With its headquarters in Ra'anana, Israel, and an office in New York City, PerSay established a global presence. The company's primary investor was SKFT, the venture capital arm of the Shrem Fudim Kelner group.
PerSay developed and marketed advanced speaker recognition systems for a variety of industries, including banking, insurance, government, and telecommunications. Its client roster featured prominent names such as Bank Leumi, China Merchants Bank, Bank Hapoalim, British Telecom, Vodafone, Barclays Capital, and Morgan Stanley. The business model centered on providing biometric security solutions that could verify an individual's identity based on their voice. This was achieved through a product suite built on a singular platform using C# and .NET technology.
The company's core offerings included VocalPassword, a system for verifying a speaker's identity during interactions with voice applications, and FreeSpeech, a text-independent system that could confirm identity during natural conversation. PerSay also developed S.P.I.D., an audio-processing system designed for law enforcement and intelligence agencies to search for specific voices within a large volume of intercepted calls. In 2010, after a decade of operation, PerSay was acquired by Nuance Communications for an undisclosed amount, estimated to be between $10 and $20 million, integrating its voice biometric solutions into Nuance's broader portfolio.
Keywords: voice biometrics, speaker recognition, speaker verification, voice authentication, biometric security, VocalPassword, FreeSpeech, identity verification, telecommunications security, financial services security, government security, audio processing, voice mining, Nuance Communications, Verint Systems, Renana Peres, Israeli technology, speaker identification, text-independent verification, voice applications.