Verbit, a Tel Aviv- and New York-based AI-powered transcription and captioning service platform, has acquired Take Note — the U.K.-based company that provides transcription, captioning and note-taking services for the market research sector. This acquisition marks Verbit’s entrance into the market research space and increases its presence in Europe.
The company did not disclose the terms of the deal. Verbit told TechCrunch at the time of its most recent $250 million Series E funding in November that it would double down on its acquisition strategy with the proceeds to consolidate the fragmented $30 billion transcription industry. Last year, it acquired captioning product and solution provider VITAC for $50 million and education and government transcription company Automatic Sync Technologies for an undisclosed amount.
Tom Livne, founder and chief executive officer of Verbit, said in an email interview with TechCrunch that Take Note’s current CEO David Abbott will remain in his position to lead the company and support continued growth and integration efforts. Also, Take Note’s 28 employees will join the team. With the acquisition of Take Note, Verbit will now serve more than 2,500 customers, Livne noted.
Since 2006, Take Note has offered efficient, accurate and general data protection regulation (GDPR) compliance service.
“Take Note’s niche, high-end audience appeal through its market research dialect and subject matter expertise made the company a natural fit to join the Verbit Group as we continue to grow our specialized teams and technologies,” Livne told TechCrunch. “The deal was also attractive to Verbit as it expands our corporate service portfolio with Take Note’s note-taking and meeting minutes services, furthering our goal of becoming a one-stop-shop for all voice AI needs.”
Verbit is familiar with the market research sector and already serves several customers in the space, Livne said, adding that it wanted to solidify its service by bringing in the expertise of a leading market research transcription company. Verbit says the acquisition will allow Verbit to enhance its performance and delivery of U.K. English language requests.
“We’re thrilled to join forces with Verbit and add our Market Research transcription and live note-taking solutions to its broad portfolio for captioning and transcription,” Abbot said in a statement. “We’ll also now have access to the Verbit company’s technologies and capabilities, which our customers will benefit from as well.”
Verbit says it will accelerate its growth with additional strategic acquisitions to expand into new verticals, geographies and functionalities. Verbit, which uses a tier 1 cloud provider AWS, offers its customers the option to geo-locate their data to the U.S. or Europe to meet their compliance needs, Livne told TechCrunch.
The company will use Take Note’s office in the U.K. to support all customers in Europe. Verbit currently has more than 470 employees in New York, Colorado, Pittsburg, Palo Alto, Canada, Tel Aviv and Kyiv, with 35,000 freelancer transcribers and 600 professional captioners globally.
When asked about its staff safety in Ukraine, Livne said that out of 37 employees in Kyiv, 10 employees have evacuated, and one employee has joined the army. The rest chose to relocate to safer countries in Europe and Israel.
“Our team has been given full flexibility and time off, and we are in direct contact with each employee daily to understand their needs so we can best support them while they focus on the safety of themselves and their loved ones,” Livne told TechCrunch.
Updates with additional comments from Livne in the eighth paragraph