http://entrevestor.com/ac/blog/talkatoo-launches-apple-based-product
by Peter Moreira | Jul 27, 2020
With a fresh tranche of capital in its coffers, Halifax-based Talkatoo has released an Apple-based version of its dictation software for veterinary professionals.
The company last year released its product for PCs, with the intention of releasing an Apple-based product later. It has taken the team about a year to develop the new product, which Co-Founder and CEO Shawn Wilkie describes as a major milestone.
In an interview on Monday, he also said the company has closed a $400,000 round of funding from existing investors, including the Halifax-based VC firm Concrete Ventures. The company now has enough money to last it for eighteen months.
“We now have just under 200 users, and we’re actually starting to experience really rapid growth,” said Wilkie. “We’ve just completed our most rapid growth of any month since COVID started.”
Talkatoo has developed a Software-as-a-Service voice-recognition product that helps veterinary professionals dictate notes that are immediately transcribed. It uses artificial intelligence to ensure that complicated medical terms are identified and accurately transcribed.
The company is initially targeting the veterinary market and eventually intends to expand into other professional markets.
Wilkie said the world’s largest provider of voice-recognition software, Nuance Communications, last year stopped developing a product for Apple computers, which left a huge opportunity for Talkatoo. He added that developing products for Apple is complicated so the team believes the launch is a major achievement.
The addition of Apple products will help many existing users who want to work on both Apple products and on PCs, which the Talkatoo software will allow them to do.
“Our current users, in a lot of cases, have an Apple computer at home but a PC at the office, or vice versa,” said Wilkie. “Our whole vision is to be a cross-platform product, so they can seamlessly move from office to home. Now our vision is becoming a reality.”
Talkatoo employs a total of 13 people, who are working remotely. Wilkie said the company has two employees in Vancouver and one in St. John’s with the main staff based in Halifax.
The company last raised $700,000 in the fall of 2019, and now Wilkie has his sights set on raising a seed round in the autumn of 2021. He said he has already had constructive conversations with venture capital funds in Silicon Valley.
“All of our metrics that we measure to get there [to the next round of funding] are looking good,” said Wilkie. “We very well could be profitable by that time, so even if we don’t raise the seed round next year we can still continue to operate.”
