Josh.ai has announced an $11 million Series A funding round. Since its founding in March 2015, the voice control platform has now raised a total of $22 million. Growing interest in hands-free interfaces for the home, along with the need for a privacy-based AI platform, has sparked investor interest. Josh.ai will use this capital to scale the team, increase its distribution network, and expand its hardware and software offerings with a focus on privacy.
In the three years since Josh.ai’s $8M funding round in 2017, the company designed, built, and shipped Josh Micro, an all-in-one smart home processor and hands-free voice assistant. The Josh.ai software features a custom natural language processing engine that can handle multiple requests in one command, deep-linking with AV distribution, room and contextual awareness, as well as a proprietary natural language scene creator. For example, a client can walk into the living room and say, “Turn on the lights, raise the blinds, play some music, and watch The Weather Channel” in a single utterance, and Josh.ai will handle all the smart home control and content routing to that room. The user could just as easily tell the system “Show me the weather” as a custom scene that could activate that text sequence.
See also: Josh.ai, AVPro Edge Partner To Transform The Home Entertainment Experience
Josh.ai is a professionally installed home automation platform with integrations that include smart lighting, shades, music, HVAC, AV, security, appliances, and more. Dozens of top integrations and partnerships have been forged with industry leaders such as Lutron, Sony, Sonos, Samsung, Comcast, Dish, Bosch, ecobee, SnapAV, IC Realtime, Roku, Atlona, Meridian, AudioControl, Barco, Sonance, LG, Pioneer, Philips, Sound United, Yamaha, and more. In addition, Josh.ai integrates with other high-end control systems including Crestron, Control4, and Savant.
With this funding, Josh.ai will double down on privacy, an aspect the company believes is critical for its clients. According to CEO Alex Capecelatro, “We believe privacy is a basic human right, particularly when dealing with voice control technology in the most private spaces of a person’s life. We don’t think it’s necessary to have to choose between cutting-edge technology and a feeling of privacy. With Josh.ai, you get both.” The system allows clients to choose to store data locally for a period of time to assist in learning, or not to store commands at all. Any data collected is used exclusively to make the user experience better. Data is never used for targeted ads. In contrast with most other voice assistants, Josh.ai does not gather and share data for marketing purposes, and never sells client data to third parties.
In addition to advanced voice control, Josh.ai recently launched the 4.0 version of their iOS apps. With the app, users have the ability to check cameras, see the state of devices, create scenes, and control everything with voice or a GUI from anywhere in the world.
In 2019, the company saw significant growth, doubling its certified installer base to over 400.
For more information, please visit www.josh.ai.
This article originally ran on residentialsystems.com.
See also: Evolving The Retail Experience In The Age Of The Smart Home
