PHOTO
Wrappup uses intelligent voice recording technology to summarise key points from a meeting and make them searchable.
By Shane McGinley
If you are reading this article while in a meeting at work then fear not, you are probably not alone.
Research by Effectivemeetings.com found that 73 percent of office workers in the United States engage in other tasks at meetings, while 91 percent said they tend to daydream and over a third admitted to falling asleep. The research showed that the average American office worker is pulled into over 60 meetings a month and most agree that around half of these are a waste of time.
Dubai-based technology startup Wrappup aims to make meetings more productive by developing an app that uses intelligent voice recording technology to summarise key points from a meeting and make them searchable. Users can flag important points, tag action points or decisions, and add notes, the firm said in a press statement.
The Wrappup app would then compile the various elements into a highlight reel of the meeting that is easily accessible to all participants.
Ayush Chordia, co-founder of Wrappup, said the Speaker Recognition algorithm uses machine learning to identify different speakers based on their voice patterns and segment meeting discussion. Wrappup then builds quantifiable metrics around the productivity of a person’s speech.
“Converting speech into useful data is at the core of each of Wrappup’s technical innovations,” he said in the statement. “The Speech Search enables anyone to remember anything using a simple search interface.”
Startup seed funding
Salman said voice technology is a sector that is experiencing “rapid innovation” and he believes the business meeting room is the perfect place for this to be adapted to.
The app is just ready to come to market and this month it received $800,000 in seed funding from a number of local investors and venture capital firms, including BECO Capital, 500 Startups, Arzan VC, Dubai Silicon Oasis, Hala Fadel, Dubai Angel Investors, Odin Financial Advisors and WOMENA.
“An investment from BECO is more than just a stamp of approval on Wrappup, it’s confirmation that Dubai can be a launching pad for exporting innovation,“ Wrappup’s Lebanese founder and CEO Rami Salman said in the statement.
Amir Farha, co-founder and managing partner of BECO Capital, a venture capital firm focused on technology investments in the Middle East and North Africa, told Zawya that Wrappup would generate revenue by offering both basic and premium services to individual users as well as companies that want to roll it out to employees.
“They have yet to figure out the exact pricing but there is a strategy in place before they go to market,” Farha said. “We hold onto our investments for very long periods. For us, our goal is to build this into a large company that builds to an acquisition most likely. So we see our return in investment working in five to eight years, maybe sooner.”
“We are building a powerful product that helps employees easily access useful information from their meeting discussions. This is tech heavy, and it takes time,” he added.
Surge in tech deals
BECO Capital traditionally invests an average of around one to two million dollars in tech startups, and Farha said the amount he was planning to invest in startups like Wrappup was likely to be more than double that seen last year.
“Our deal flow is exponentially growing. Last year we saw 400 deals, the year before that 200 and this year we are going to see around 1,000,” he said, adding that he has seen a massive increase in the number of deals being offered from companies in the Middle East.
“They apply for funding and then we invest in less than one percent of them.”
In terms of specific sectors in the Middle East where he sees growth, Farha said payment infrastructure solutions and content creation tools were the most popular types of tech startups he was looking to invest in.
“Arabic content needs a boost and we have yet to make a content realm, but over time it is a space we are interested in,” he said.
The region is certainly attracting interest from mature markets like Silicon Valley. Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), which has offices in Beirut, Dubai and Silicon Valley and more than $120 million in assets under management, launched its second fund focused on the Middle East in December last year.
Earlier this year in May, Fergal Mullen, founding partner at Highland Europe, a 332 million euro ($381 million) Geneva-based investment fund which targets tech startup opportunities in Europe and the Middle East, told Zawya he sees around 3,000 potential deals a year but only a very small proportion of these come from the Middle East.
© Zawya 2016
