**Cisco Acquires Real-Time Translation Startup EzDubs to Boost Collaboration Platform**
Cisco, a global leader in networking and communications technology, has announced its acquisition of EzDubs, a promising consumer startup specializing in real-time translation services. The acquisition, disclosed over the weekend, marks a strategic move by Cisco to strengthen its portfolio of artificial intelligence-driven communication tools. While Cisco did not reveal the financial terms of the deal, the move underscores the growing interest in AI-powered language translation within the enterprise sector.
**About EzDubs: Origins and Growth**
EzDubs is a relatively new entrant to the AI translation space, having been founded in 2023 by Padmanabhan Krishnamurthy, Amrutavarsh Kinagi, and Kareem Nassar. Notably, Nassar brings prior experience from Cisco’s own Speech AI group, which likely facilitated synergies between the two companies. Shortly after its founding, EzDubs raised $4.2 million in seed funding. The investment round was led by Venture Highway, a fund established by Neeraj Arora, former chief business officer at WhatsApp. EzDubs also attracted backing from notable figures in the tech world, including Amjad Masad and Michele Catasta of Replit, Qasar Younis from Applied Intuition, and Ben Firshman, CEO of Replicate—which itself was recently acquired by Cloudflare.
EzDubs quickly gained attention for its innovative technology, which enables real-time translation of audio and video content while preserving the speaker’s original voice and emotional tone. Its consumer apps supported instant call translations in over 30 languages, and its video dubbing tool gained viral popularity on social media platforms such as X (formerly Twitter).
**Integration with Cisco’s Collaboration Platform**
Cisco has outlined its intention to integrate EzDubs’ advanced translation technology into its suite of collaboration tools, which includes both hardware and software products. This integration will primarily enhance Cisco Webex, the company’s flagship video calling and messaging platform, by enabling real-time, voice-preserving translations for users across the globe. Beyond Webex, Cisco’s blog post hinted at plans to make EzDubs’ capabilities available to Cisco’s partners and developers, potentially extending the reach of this technology well beyond the core Cisco user base.
Snorre Kjesbu, Cisco’s Senior Vice President of Collaboration, emphasized the transformative potential of the acquisition. “The EzDubs team will join Cisco Collaboration, working side-by-side with our product, engineering, and go-to-market teams. Together, we will chart a new course for the industry, one where AI doesn’t just support collaboration, but truly empowers it,” Kjesbu stated. However, details about whether all EzDubs employees will be joining Cisco remain unclear.
**The End of EzDubs’ Consumer Service**
As a consequence of the acquisition, EzDubs has announced it will sunset its consumer-facing apps by December 15. The company expressed gratitude to its user community in