Where VCs are looking for voice startup investments – TechCrunch

#News(Startup) [ via IoTGroup ]

Led by Amazon’s Alexa, smart speakers’ install base is expected to reach 200 million units worldwide by 2020.
A quarter of Americans over the age of 12 own a smart speaker, and the majority of those users have more than one device in their home.
Podcast production and consumption has exploded, but they don’t take advantage of smart speakers and headphones as interactive devices.
Even though there were 57,000 Alexa skills available at the end of last year, most people are using smart speakers mainly to check the weather, check the news, ask simple questions and play music.
If voice is a new operating system, where are the opportunities to build giant companies on top of it?
Matt Hartman, Partner at Betaworks Ventures
Nicole Quinn, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners
Matt Hartman, Partner at Betaworks Ventures
For the next wave of audio, we’re focused [on] three broad categories: personalization, new behaviors/new interfaces, and monetization.
Personalization means both utilizing location, Apple Watch, and other data to create magical audio experiences and customized audio content, but also advances in generative content like Resemble.ai and Descript that can create custom audio.
In terms of new behaviors/new interfaces, people are leaving their Airpods in longer, which means there may be an opportunity for “Airpod-first” product design.
Finally, as audio becomes an industry, monetization will be improved and also re-thought: subscription products such as Shine and Headspace are interesting in the context that if they don’t really work as ad-supported podcasts, and they are packaged in such a way that people are willing to pay a monthly or annual subscription.
Nicole Quinn, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners
VR and AR are options, but I believe voice will be the next major platform with mass adoption.
Leading audio apps such as Calm, the meditation and sleep app, are already set up to take advantage of the move to voice.

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