Peech, the app that is capable of converting any content into audio, has just picked up about €540k in new funding. The Belarus-founded startup is aiming to disrupt the sector through its cost-effective and easy-to-use product.
The funding was led by Flyer One Ventures with the support of Yury Mazanik, founder of Belka Games.
Founded in 2022, Peech converts any texts, files, pictures, or web pages into audiobooks. Users simply scan the content they need to be converted, and then they can listen to it as if it were an audiobook all along. Given that audio is growing in popularity as an easy way to digest content, Peech provides a simple way for people to enjoy articles whilst going about their daily lives.
Led by experienced tech specialists from Eastern Europe Andrey Poznyak and Alex Gorbel, and qualified marketing executive and product manager Bahram Ismailov, the app is taking on a big market. Content consumption is rapidly growing and audio is becoming the poster-boy format. Listening to the news rather than reading it, hearing about an opinion rather than turning pages in a magazine and getting lost in a story whilst out on a jog is now what many consumers want – and Peech is offering it.
Andrey Poznyak, co-founder of Peech, explained: ‘’Knowledge is the main resource of our time, and projects that simplify the process of obtaining it will always be relevant. Due to the development of technology, the share of the use of audio interfaces is greatly increasing, and there is still a lot of potential here. At the moment the application is available in more than 60 languages, and we will improve the product to make it more convenient for the development of the audience.”
After taking time to consider what core features needed to be included, based on the founders’ own personal desire for such a product, Peech launched this year and can read documents, recognize text in photos, recommend articles, and much more.
It also includes Peech AI which collects and voices the most useful articles from the best publishers like Wired, Observer, Harvard Business Review, Vanity Fair, Medium, The Economist, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Bloomberg, BBC, Business Insider, and many others. That provides an opportunity to consume high-quality content on a variety of topics: Parenthood, Venture Capital, Marketing, Healthy Nutrition, Financial Markets, Travel, etc. In other words, it is like Spotify for useful texts.
The app has already picked up attention. During February-May, more than 11000 hours of unique content were voiced. It is popular amongst generations and cohorts of people. From doctors to students, it provides a service for anyone who likes or needs to consume content in a practical audio format.
The app is now available in 50+ languages, and that number is only growing. Further, the team’s videos have managed to rack up more than 2.4 million views and the app has around 2k paying customers – and this has been achieved with a very small marketing budget.
Now, with this funding boost, the team want to bring Peech to new markets, with the USA and Western Europe as primary targets. The startup also wants to develop the product further, grow the team and focus.
Vital Laptenok, General Partner at Flyer One Ventures, commented: “The growth of audio content consumers has been on a constant upward trajectory for the past few years. In the U.S. alone, 73% of the population listens to online audio monthly, which is only increasing. The rise in demand for audiobooks, podcasts, and other audio formats indicates that audio will be more popular than reading. Therefore, we see huge potential in Peech’s product and are happy to support the team in their efforts to develop a culture of consuming useful content in the audio format’’.
