WRAL Tech Wire

Charlotte-based Yap wins voice-to-text deal with Cincinnati Bell

Yap

Local Tech Wire

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Customers in the Cincinnati area will soon be able to turn voice mail messages into text messages automatically through technology provided by Yap.

The Queen City-based startup has signed a contract with Cincinnati Bell for use of its Yap Voice2Text technology that uses speech recognition to convert voice to text and then delivers the messages to mobile phones.

Customers can choose to receive transcripts via e-mail or text messages in SMS format.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“Cincinnati Bell subscribers have always been early adopters of advanced services, such as voicemail-to-text,” said Mike Vanderwoude, general manager of Cincinnati Bell Wireless. “By partnering with Yap, we are taking Voice2Text to the next level with enhanced options including e-mail delivery of voicemail messages, a profanity filter, and online account management.”

The phone company will offer the Voice2Text service for $4.99 per month to handle 25 messages or $5.99 per month for unlimited messages.

Launched in 2005, Yap is backed by Sun Bridge Partners and Harbert Venture Partners.

The company has raised $8 million - $1.5 million in 2007 and $6.5 million last year.

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