In 2017, KUDO launched its Language-as-a-Service platform to support multilingual web conferences and events. Fast forward to today’s remote work environment, and KUDO’s service is more relevant than ever. The platform provides real-time language interpretation to live online meetings and conferences, so people can listen and speak in their language, while expert interpreters translate what the participants say into many other languages. The former Chief Interpreter of the United Nations is responsible for training KUDO’s interpreters who handle 32 different languages presently. KUDO has also built in a suite of other meeting productivity tools that include instant feedback, screen sharing, document sharing, and live polls to make web conferences smoother and more engaging. Clients include the United Nations, the World Bank, the Council of Europe, and a number of prominent tech companies.
AlleyWatch caught up with CEO and Cofounder Fardad Zabetian to learn more about KUDO’s growth during the pandemic (usage has increased from 200 thousand minutes to roughly 30 million minutes per month), the company’s expansion plans, and recent round of funding.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
We just raised $6M in a Seed round led by Felicis with the participation of Global Founders Capital, ID8 Investments, Advancit Capital, and AirAngels. Collectively, they truly represent KUDO as a global company. The entire round from start to finish took less than 6 weeks.
Tell us about the product or service that KUDO offers.
KUDO is a Language-as-a-Service (LaaS) platform. We offer a cloud-based solution for multilingual business collaboration that allows you to meet globally in your own language. KUDO streams real-time language interpretation to live online meetings and conferences, and participants can join through their own computers or smart devices. Speakers, attendees, and interpreters can be in the same room or halfway across the world.
What inspired the start of KUDO?
I have been in the conferencing space for about 20 years, with another two successful companies devoted to hardware solutions and clients such as the United Nations, the IMF, the World Bank, the French Senate. In time, we started to notice a trend where more and more meetings were being pushed online. Large multilateral organizations were also under pressure to develop mechanisms to allow delegates to meet remotely, with full interpretation. That got me busy thinking about ways to disrupt our own market and beat the curve. KUDO is the result of this exercise and the foresight that the meeting space, as we knew, would eventually change.
How is KUDO different?
KUDO in an in-bred solution, rooted in a long and successful legacy that combines technical conferencing know-how and deep language expertise. Our founding team boasts a 60+ years of combined experience in all aspects of a multilingual operation. We are industry insiders. You can say we are reinventing the wheel here, but we’re not looking outward. We are the wheel.
What market does KUDO target and how big is it?
It is still premature to say, as the market hasn’t matured yet. The best we can do is extrapolate from existing data about the online meeting space and contrast it with the wealth of information we are gathering as we grow.
Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, the web conferencing market was valued at around $13B and expected to grow to about $30B – $50B in the next five years. Conservative estimates indicate multilingual meetings would account for about 5-to-10% of that universe. But the current pandemic has turned the meeting space on its head, and it would not be unrealistic to expect a quick 10-fold increase in those numbers. It is a big market on its way to becoming huge.
What’s your business model?
KUDO is a subscription-based service contracted annually with quarterly payments. Pricing will vary according to the number of subscription hours purchased monthly.
The service can also be purchased on a pre-paid basis, on-demand, in different formats.
Clients are encouraged to work with their own interpreters, who are trained by KUDO online and off. We do provide a turnkey solution that includes interpreters, upon request, in about 20% of the cases.
How has COVID-19 impacted the business?
The current health crisis, despite its tragic consequences that so directly touch us all, gave online meetings a huge boost. In so doing, it opened a window of opportunity that allowed us to prove our concept and shorten our business cycle. It created insane demand, almost overnight, just when our solution was hitting the market.
In a span of just three months, we saw our usage increase from 200 thousand to about 30 million minutes per month. At the same time, our roster of KUDO Certified interpreters jumped from 1,500 to 8,000 interpreters, with an average of 650 meetings happening on KUDO every month. And those numbers are still climbing.
What was the funding process like?
We were surprised at how fast it went. It was also very encouraging, in that the investors started referring the opportunity to other, like-minded VCs, thereby creating a very cohesive funding partnership.
We are very proud of the people and tacit knowledge behind our current team of investors. They are as excited as we are, and just as willing to roll up their sleeves and help us grow fast.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
In retrospect, the challenges were never too high, and once we pushed past the proof of concept phase, investor’s concerns simply fell by the wayside.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
The star alignment was simply perfect. The market opportunity was palpable, the timing was right, and the product was mature. But I like to think the one ingredient that moved them beyond any reasonable doubt about whether we can make it a success is a lot more subjective and yet impossible to miss: passion. We love what we do, and it shows.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
The added leverage will fuel much-needed growth in our engineering, product, and client success teams. We have a new product release already scheduled for December, which will be another game-changer.
We also plan to further enhance the premium security features that led the United Nations, the World Bank, the Council of Europe, and Silicon Valley tech companies to choose us over more affordable but less dependable options.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
I would summarize it in 3 Ps: product, passion, and persistence. The money will follow.
I would summarize it in 3 Ps: product, passion, and persistence. The money will follow.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
KUDO is well on its way to becoming a key player, if not the leader, in multilingual web meeting. Innovation is intrinsic in our DNA, so you can expect new breakthroughs to hit the market in the next couple of months. I will not spill the beans just yet, but what we have coming will be mind-blowing.
What’s your favorite outdoor dining restaurant in NYC
I very much enjoy spending time at Dumbo House terrace.
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