Yoodli, a Seattle, WA – based startup building an artificial intelligence platform to help people communicate effectively, raised $6m in seed funding.
The round, which brings brings total funding to $7.1m, was co-led by Madrona Venture Group and Cercano Management (formerly Vulcan Capital), with participation from J4 Ventures, Ascend, Jeff Richards from GGV Capital, Dave Rosenberg (founder of Mulesoft), and renowned leadership communication experts Renn Vara and Maureen Taylor. In conjunction with the funding, Patrick Ennis, who has decades of experience as a scientist, engineer, businessman, and venture capitalist at Madrona, ARCH Venture Partners, Intellectual Ventures, and Bell Labs, will be joining the Yoodli Board of Directors.
The company intends to use the funds for product development, as well as sales and marketing expansion.
Founded in 2021 by Esha Joshi and Varun Puri, Yoodli is an AI-enabled communication skills improvement platform that records users as they deliver presentations, and then points out tips such as where they could speak more clearly, as well as improving their use of eye contact and gestures. Users can also solicit feedback from colleagues and get connected to an expert coach. The speeches are private to the user but shareable to friends, coaches, and others if external feedback is desired.
The system uses natural language processing, computer vision, and speech algorithms to help users get detailed feedback on speeches recorded on the platform.
The company is already being used by thousands of professional speakers, coaches, students, and corporate professionals to get data-driven insights on their speaking presentations.
