Overview
Kotoba Technologies is a Tokyo-based artificial intelligence company founded in 2023 that develops speech recognition and translation models. The company focuses on creating AI infrastructure for processing East Asian languages, with particular emphasis on Japanese, English, Chinese, and Korean.
The company addresses the technical challenge of building accurate speech AI systems for languages that have historically received less machine learning development compared to English. Real-time translation and speech recognition for East Asian languages present distinct computational and linguistic challenges that the company seeks to solve through foundation models.
Activities and products
Kotoba Technologies has developed Koto, a speech foundation model designed to process Japanese, English, Chinese, and Korean. The company also operates a real-time translation application that delivers translations with latency under one second. The company licenses Japanese automatic speech recognition (ASR) models to technology companies and enterprises, with documented customers including major U.S. technology firms and global enterprises.
Stage and funding
Kotoba Technologies is at seed stage. The company raised $11.83 million in seed funding in June 2025. Beyond this funding round, verified information regarding investors or additional traction metrics is not available.
Photograph: Steve A Johnson / Unsplash
Company details
- Legal name
- Kotoba Technologies
- Website
- www.kotoba.tech
- Headquarters
- Tokyo, Japan
- Founded
- 2023
- Sector
- AI infrastructure
- Funding stage
- Seed