A florithmic, a London/Barcelona based AI Audio-As-A-Service startup, announced today that it has raised a $1.3 Million Seed Round from Australian media company CrowdMedia Holdings (ASX: CM8 & FWB: CM3).

Aflorithmic enables fully automated, scalable audio production by using synthetic media, voice cloning and audio mastering, to then deliver it onto any device or platform. With this Audio-As-A-Service, anybody can create beautiful, podcast-quality audio, tailored to each individual listener.

Aflorithmic is a personalized Audio SaaS platform creating hyper-personalized audio experiences produced at scale using AI voice synthesis and ethical voice cloning. The service allows users to create realistic and beautiful podcast-quality audio by text input, which can be spoken in the user’s own cloned voice, and then tailored to each individual listener.

The recent pandemic drove a massive boom in podcasts and audiobook downloads. Yet manual audio production remains a highly labor-intensive and expensive process involving many steps, from scripting to booking a studio.

As such, automated, personalized and scalable audio and video services are in high demand, with market leader Descript just c losing a $30M series B round on January 28. However, while Descript aims to use its text-to-synthetic voice tools to improve written scripts, Aflorithmic’s API automates the entire audio production process, including text-to-voice.

With Aflorithmic, anybody can transform simple text into voice content, then choose the speaker from a vast voice library, or record their own voice and create personalized audio content via voice cloning AI.Users can compose professional-quality pieces including music and complex audio engineering, then deliver the final product to any device or platform such as websites, mobile apps, or smart speakers - all without any previous production experience.

To make mass distribution even simpler, users’ content production is extremely scalable, leading to far higher engagement among audiences. A single audio item can be scaled into unlimited pieces of content by personalizing it for every single listener, with the audio text adapting to their name, location, experience and more.

“We are excited to learn from Crowd’s experience in empowering companies to reach mass markets, and are pleased to accompany them as they define the future of social commerce,” says Timo Kunz, Co-Founder, and CEO at Aflorithmic. “We believe audio creation as we know it is making way for automated, scalable, dynamic audio experiences - and companies like ours are at the forefront.”

As part of the investment agreement, Aflorithmic’s technology will be integrated with Crowd’s SocialCommerce applications, including CM8's Talking Head technology, an AI-driven chatbot that helps customers have useful conversations across the marketing, education, and health sectors.

“Synthetic audio production has a seemingly endless range of functions - the potential within marketing applications alone is mind blowing. Imagine Kim Kardashian being a personal shopper foreach of her 200M followers, or Lewis Hamilton explaining why YOU personally need the new Pirelli PZero Rosso. All of this is just around the corner with our tech,” said Timo Kunz.

While Crowd will be focusing on social commerce applications, the Aflorithmic team is also working with companies from a range of industries, with use cases including personalized children's stories narrated with the voice of a family member or celebrity of their choice; hyper-personalized newsletters and podcasts; and voice cloning for marketing applications. The new funding will be used for R&D for the API audio-production engine, voice cloning, and talent acquisition.

“I believe we can translate the most recent advances in AI research into commercial innovations that will completely reshape the way consumers engage in eCommerce.” said Crowd Media’s ChairmanSteven Schapera. “This is the silver bullet Crowd was looking for.”