Yesterday rumor began to slip out that French startup VirtuOz had been purchased by Nuance Communications, the makers of Apple virtual assistant Siri. First discovered by TechCrunch’s Ingrid Lunden, the article suggests that the deal closed earlier this week, and that the news will be made public in the coming weeks, though an amount has not yet been disclosed.
VirtuOz has raised $20.4 Million dollars in total, so an exit at this point may be north of $100 Million. Currently dual-headquartered in Paris and Emeryville California, VirtuOz was founded by Alex Lebrun in 2002, a serial entrepreneur who previously cofounded Asiance, a digital marketing agency in South Korea, and also worked for KDS, Europe’s leading B2B travel reservation company.
While Siri’s charm wore off for me a long time ago, the voice-to-action aspect always seemed appealing (though most of the features for Siri never quite rolled out outside of the US). I can definitely see how this kind of tool will compliment what Nuance is working on, and look forward to hearing the official word on the deal.