Zoom buying startup for real time machine translation
Zoom announced it is buying a German startup developing real-time machine translation for video calls where participants can speak their own language, Karlsruhe Information Technology Solutions – Kites.
“With our aligned missions to make collaboration frictionless – regardless of language, geographic location, or other barriers – we are confident Kites’ impressive team will fit right in with Zoom,” said Velchamy Sankarlingam, President of Product and Engineering at Zoom.
“Kites emerged with the mission of breaking down language barriers and making seamless cross-language interaction a reality of everyday life, and we have long admired Zoom for its ability to easily connect people across the world,” said Kites’ founders Alex Waibel and Sebastian Stüker.
Kites was founded in 2015, employs 12 researchers and has academic roots with Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, where co-founders Dr. Alex Waibel and Dr. Sebastian Stüker are faculty members.
The Kites team will remain based in Karlsruhe, Germany, where Zoom says it is looking forward to investing in growing the team. Zoom is exploring opening an R&D center in Germany in the future.
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