Vapps Alums Raise $1.5 Million for OneTok, an App Platform With Voice Control
By Erin Griffith
On March 21, 2012
Thanks to Siri, you can talk to your phone. With OneTok, you’ll be able to talk to your apps.
OneTok, a stealth mode platform created by the founders of Vapps, will allow app developers to integrate Apple’s voice recognition software into their offerings.
The New York based company has raised a $1.5 million seed round from friends, family, and one prominent venture capital fund, co-founder Ben Lilienthal told me.
Lilienthal is known for building of one of the world’s largest VOIP conferencing technology companies, Vapps. He sold Vapps to Citrix in 2008 for $26.6 million. The company’s technology is now a part of the GoToMeeting suite of products.
Now he’s taking his VOIP expertise and applying it to voice recognition. The company will exit private beta mode toward the end of the second quarter, Lilienthal said.
“There are all these people out there writing mobile apps, and Apple has proven with Siri that people want to control their phones by talking to them,” he said.
OneTok is still looking for key partners to be a part of the launch. (Sign up to get more info here).
Erin Griffith covers New York startups for PandoDaily. She's worked as staff writer for Adweek and a private equity blogger for peHUB. Her writing has appeared in VCJ, Time Out New York, Huffington Post, FT.com, and BUST. She plays keyboard in a band called Team Genius and Tweets as @Eringriffith.
