Transcription, translation and subtitling startup Subly today announced its seed raise of around €820K from global investors including Loyal VC, Wayra (Telefónica), AI Startup Incubator and angel investors.
Founded in 2018, Subly is a simple-to-use online subtitling, transcription and translation platform which allows creators and businesses to transcribe, translate and subtitle content without professional skills needed.
This raise comes as Subly scales its services to meet growing trends, such as brands and creators wishing to create more accessible content, more of the population consuming content with the sound off than ever, and brands wanting to localise content for global audiences. The investment will support the ambitions to further develop and improve Subly services and technologies, expand the team and continue the expansion, with customers currently in over 150 countries.
Andy Ayim, Investor and Director at The Angel Investing School said: “As a content creator, when I create video content for socials and my online courses, I am always conscious about inclusivity and widening my reach. That’s how I first learned about how effortless it is to use Subly for all my subtitles. I was sold as a customer and had the privilege to join as an investor too.”
“We’re thrilled to announce our Seed raise at Subly,” said Subly’s CEO, Holly Stephens. “This round is earlier than expected due to our exponential growth during 2020 and the interest from global investors to further accelerate the growth of Subly. We’ve seen incredible interest in, and use of, our platform over the last year due to more online content being created than ever, and the need for businesses to communicate with teams and customers virtually. Our vision remains true to help creators and businesses around the world to make global, accessible and localised content.”
The new investors all align closely with the values and vision of Subly, bringing with them expertise and experience from around the globe and across sectors, with a specific focus on SaaS and tech. The round highlights the confidence of new and existing investors including lead investor Loyal VC, also part of the previous pre-seed round, in the Subly vision to make all content truly global, the product, technology and global team. The launch, growth and investment were all completed with a fully remote team and the challenges experienced around the world during the pandemic.
Debora Bielecki, Board Advisor at Bank of Canada and Loyal VC, and Subly investor said: “I have had the pleasure to meet many businesses and entrepreneurs, over the past few years. Every once in a while, you find a gem. Investing in Subly just made sense. With the increased need for productivity tools for employees and the speed of content consumption, Holly and the team at Subly are the creators of new subtitling capabilities driven by speed and agility. As this market is growing daily and subtitles are becoming part of our virtual lives, it just made sense to invest in Subly and their leader Holly, who has the drive and energy to lead this sector and business growth globally.”
Rob Atkinson, pre-seed Investor and Advisor, ex Adshel, Clear Channel and Australian Radio Network said: “Since I started advising and working with the Subly team in 2020 they’ve seen great growth in users and paid customers in both key and underserved markets. The team has found product-market fit and have great insights into their key users, enabling them to build features and technologies for the future of Subly to help all make content accessible.”
