Speaktoit raises $2.6M to build an army of 'personal assistants'

Speaktoit, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based developer of human-computer interaction technologies, announced today that it has raised $2.6 million in Series B funding.

The company develops what it calls an “intelligent companion,” which acts like Apple’s Siri, executing actions based on voice commands. Think of it as having a personal assistant who is accessible on more than just your phone or tablet.

The Speaktoit assistant starts to remember your favorite places and preferences over time. However, unlike Siri, it has a caricature that greets you, putting a face to a voice. It also works cross-platform, meaning you can access your assistant on your mobile device or computer without needing to switch gadgets.

Speaktoit will be using its funds to grow its engineering team and work with automotive, smart home, smart TV, wearable technology and robotics companies to expand the use of its technology. In the near future, you could use Speaktoit technology to give commands to your smartwatch or smart TV.

“As the Internet of things helps people reimagine what’s possible with the objects around us, we’re continuing to expand how users interact with their connected devices and gadgets,” said Speaktoit CEO Ilya Gelfenbeyn. “Our investors share our vision of the connected future, and we’re excited to work with them to ensure natural language understanding becomes a seamless, instinctive, and helpful part of our daily lives.”

Motorola Solutions Venture Capital, Intel Capital, Alpine Technology Fund, and Plug and Play Ventures all participated in the funding.

The Speaktoit app has more than 12 million users, and it is available in nine different languages. It can be used on Android, iOS, Windows, and Google Chrome.

As Speaktoit technology makes its way onto more devices, the age of the virtual personal assistant may begin to rise.