Otter.ai said Tuesday that it has raised $320 million from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund for its meeting note-taking tool. The fund provides capital without diluting a startup’s equity and earns returns based on the results of marketing spending.
Otter.ai plans to use the money for enterprise growth, its go-to-market strategy, international expansion and product innovation. The company has been around for nearly a decade. It previously raised $50 million in total funding, with its last round in 2021, according to PitchBook data.
Otter.ai reports more users
Otter.ai crossed $100 million in annual recurring revenue last year. The company said it is approaching new milestones but did not give updated figures. It also said 40 million people have used its product to date, up from 25 million last year.
Those totals do not show how many people use Otter.ai regularly. The company did not provide monthly active user or churn figures. Retaining customers is a key question in a crowded market for meeting notes.
Competitors include Fireflies.ai, Granola and Read AI, as well as Circleback, Talat and Quill. Calendly and Wispr have also entered the market, while Superhuman acquired Fathom. Many of these companies aim to connect meeting data to enterprise systems and automate work.
The tool is expanding beyond transcripts
Otter.ai has moved in that direction with a meeting assistant, search across apps and integrations with other AI tools. Pranav Singhvi, a partner and co-founder of General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund, said the fund sees an opportunity for Otter.ai to turn voice data into business insights.
Alex Gay, Otter.ai’s newly appointed chief marketing officer, joined from Superhuman. He told TechCrunch at the HumanX conference last month that people in meeting-heavy roles need a way to turn transcripts into useful plans. He pointed to time spent recapping earlier discussions when meetings begin.
Otter.ai is now testing ways to provide information before, during and after meetings. One test sends users a briefing drawn from previous conversations across surfaces. Another, called Live Assist, lets users ask the AI assistant questions during a meeting.
