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Voiceloo (Voithru)

Category: AI in Media / Gaming / Entertainment

Korean AI-powered content localization company (translation, subtitling, dubbing) that launched Polita, an AI dubbing service combining machine translation with expert review; acquired by Kakao Piccoma in 2023. Voiceloo (Voithru) was founded in 2018. The company is led by Sangheon Lee (이상헌). Based in Seoul, South Korea. Team size: 101-500. Total funding raised: $8.05M. Latest round: Acquired. Key investors include Hashed, Hanwha Investment & Securities, TBT (티비티), KB Investment, Kakao Piccoma (acquirer).

Founded
2018
Headquarters
Seoul, South Korea
Team size
101-500
Total funding
$8.05M

Value proposition

AI-driven content localization (translation, subtitling, dubbing) that cuts cost 60-80% vs. professional voice recording and shortens production time to ~1/5 of studio production, while maintaining quality through expert review.

Products and solutions

JAMAKE (자메이크) - AI-powered YouTube subtitle/translation platform for creators, PANOPLAY (파노플레이) - B2B content translation service, TOTUS (토투스) - localization worker platform, Polita (폴리타) - AI dubbing service combining machine translation with expert review (launched 2026).

Unique value

Combines AI translation/dubbing generation with up to 5 rounds of expert review (translation accuracy, lip-sync, speech length, volume/sync auto-correction) to deliver commercial-grade localized content across 70 languages. Zero-shot speech-to-speech (STS) and a proprietary voice model library applied by content type.

Target customer

B2B: OTT/media/entertainment companies, e-learning providers, game studios, animation studios, publishers; plus individual YouTube creators (via JAMAKE).

Industries served

Media & entertainment (animation, OTT/broadcast), e-learning/education, gaming, webtoon/webnovel publishing, audiobooks.

Technology advantage

300,000+ cumulative content localization projects; 1,300+ language worker infrastructure; proprietary AI engine with speaker identification (prevents wrong-voice errors), zero-shot speech-to-speech (STS), and a voice model library; up to 5-stage expert QA process; 70 languages supported.

How they differentiate

Unlike pure-AI dubbing tools, Voithru pairs AI generation with full expert review (translation, lip-sync, sound engineering) to deliver commercial-grade output, leveraging its large accumulated translation dataset and 1,300+ language worker network.

Main competitors

ElevenLabs (AI dubbing/voice), Maestra.ai (video dubbing), VEED.IO (AI voice translation/dubbing).

Key partnerships

Kakao Piccoma (parent/acquirer), selected as supplier for Korea's 2025 Data Voucher Support Program (Ministry of Science and ICT & Korea Data Agency).

Notable customers

~70% of Korean YouTubers with global subscribers use Voithru, animation (26-episode full dubbing), education/e-learning (300+ titles), broadcast/OTT (12 episodes), game dialogue (10,000+ lines), audiobooks (14-speaker).

Major milestones

2017 founded (as student startup), 2018 incorporated, 2020 Series A ₩20억 (Hashed, Hanwha), 2021 Series B ₩60억 (Hashed-led, TBT, KB Investment), 2021 Japan subsidiary established, 2023 Indonesia subsidiary established, Jan 2023 acquired by Kakao Piccoma for ~₩200억 (~70% stake), 2023 Forbes Korea 30 Under 30 (CEO), 2026 launched Polita AI dubbing service.

Growth metrics

300,000+ cumulative content localization projects; 1,300+ language workers; 70 languages supported; 60-80% cost reduction vs. professional voice recording; ~1/5 production time vs. studio.

Market positioning

Leading Korean content localization tech company; ~70% of Korean YouTubers with global subscribers use Voithru. Now a subsidiary of Kakao Piccoma (Kakao group) strengthening global content localization.

Geographic focus

South Korea (home), Japan, Indonesia (subsidiaries), global content localization markets.

About Sangheon Lee (이상헌)

Founder of Voithru since 2017 (company incorporated 2018); Yonsei University (연세대학교); previously Data Analyst at Donga University; President of Yonsei Big Data Group. Named to Forbes Korea 30 Under 30 (2023).

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