Voicea

Voicea was an artificial intelligence technology company that developed an enterprise voice assistant (EVA) designed to make meetings more productive. Founded in 2016 by Omar Tawakol and Mohamed El-Geish, the company was based in Mountain View, California. Tawakol, a serial entrepreneur, previously founded BlueKai, a data management platform acquired by Oracle in 2014. His experience moving between cultures as a youth influenced his entrepreneurial perspective, teaching him to challenge the status quo.

The company's core product, EVA, was an AI-powered assistant that could join meetings, transcribe conversations in real-time, and identify highlights and action items. By using voice commands, users could have EVA capture key moments, which were then organized into searchable recaps and notes. These summaries could be shared via email or integrated directly into workflow management and collaboration tools like Salesforce, Trello, and Slack, effectively turning talk into action. The platform blended AI with Automated Speech Recognition (ASR) to provide these services for video conferences, phone calls, and in-person meetings. Voicea's business model targeted individuals, teams, and enterprises with a subscription-based service. The company raised a total of $33 million over four funding rounds from investors including Cisco, Salesforce, and Google Ventures. In 2018, Voicea acquired Wrappup, a Dubai-based AI voice-to-text note-taking startup.

On September 6, 2019, Cisco completed its acquisition of Voicea to enhance its Webex collaboration portfolio. Voicea's technology was integrated into Webex Meetings to create the Webex Assistant, providing features like transcription, closed captioning, and meeting highlights. This move was part of Cisco's strategy to advance its vision of AI-driven 'Cognitive Collaboration'. Following the acquisition, the Voicea team joined the Webex portfolio group.

Keywords: enterprise voice assistant, meeting transcription, voice AI, automated speech recognition, meeting productivity, action items, voice collaboration, real-time transcription, meeting notes, Cisco acquisition, Webex Assistant, Omar Tawakol, EVA, talk into action, AI assistant, digital meeting notes, voice search, collaboration platform, productivity software, meeting analytics