Wispr raises $280M at $2B valuation, launches Canto model to slash dictation errors

Wispr, the AI dictation startup behind the popular Wispr Flow, announced Monday it has raised $280 million in Series B funding led by Menlo Ventures, at a $2 billion valuation. The round brings the company's total funding to $361 million, with notable investors like NEA, 8VC, and new backers including Peak XV and Forerunner participating. The fresh capital comes less than 10 months after its previous round and will fuel Wispr's expansion beyond dictation into new territories, most notably AI-powered meeting notes with its newly released note-taker tool. The company has also scaled go-to-market teams in India and the U.K., and partnered with hardware makers like the Oasis ring to enable discreet voice input on wearables.

Alongside the funding news, Wispr unveiled Canto, a new speech understanding model designed to fix recent quality complaints about Wispr Flow's dictation output. The company says Canto reduces error rates from 30% to less than 10%, a significant leap in accuracy. This move comes as competition heats up from rivals like Willow, Monologue, and Superwhisper, plus a wave of free or lower-priced prosumer tools. In the meeting notes space, Wispr's offering competes directly with Granola, Fireflies, and Read AI. The startup also launched Wispr Interface Labs, led by early Amazon Alexa engineer Ariya Rastrow, to explore new human-computer interaction paradigms beyond voice typing.