Ad Auris
Ad Auris is a Vancouver-based AI audio startup that operates the Ad Auris Audio Studio SaaS platform for publishers and the Ad Auris Play consumer app, converting written articles into branded synthetic-voice audio distributed via podcast platforms and publisher websites.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2020
- HeadquartersVancouver, Canada
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingSoftware
What Ad Auris does
Ad Auris is a Vancouver-based AI audio narration company founded in 2020 by Varun Sharma, Logan Underwood, and Tina Haertel. It operates two products: the Ad Auris Audio Studio, a B2B SaaS platform for independent publishers, newsrooms, and writers to convert written articles into AI-narrated audio, and Ad Auris Play, a consumer-facing beta app launched in 2022 that lets end-users paste article URLs and generate audio on demand. The core technology combines NLP-driven text preparation, third-party synthetic voice generation, and human sound engineer post-production in a three-layer workflow, with custom brand-aligned voice profiles per publication vertical. Distribution is handled through one-line iframe embeds on publisher websites and RSS-based syndication to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, and Pocket Casts, with native CMS integrations for WordPress, Drupal, Substack, and Newspack.
The company generates revenue primarily through subscription pricing for publications (quote-based tiers that are not publicly disclosed) and secondary advertising monetization via Google Ad Manager integration, with a stated premium-audio upsell pathway for subscriber content. Go-to-market combines a sales-led motion targeted at publishers via demo requests and a self-serve dashboard, alongside a product-led consumer motion through Ad Auris Play. Its customer base is a horizontal mix of mid-market independent publishers, university and student publications, immigrant-community outlets, and individual writers/bloggers across North America, LATAM, Australia, and Southeast Asia, with named clients including The Nevada Independent, La Noticia, The Stanford Daily, The Conversation Canada, Conexión Migrante, India Spend, and The Haitian Times. The company has narrated more than 50,000 articles cumulatively and operates with a team of 8.
The company has raised $1M in total funding across multiple rounds from Antler, First Row Partners, League of Innovators, Alliance of Angels, CrossCut, NEXT Canada, and Inclusive Ventures Lab, and participated in the 2022 Google Cloud Accelerator Canada cohort. There are no disclosed revenue, ARR, or valuation figures, and the legal entity type is not stated.
Ad Auris firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Ad Auris
- Legal name
- Ad Auris
- Website
- https://welcome.adauris.ai
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2020
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Ad Auris is a Vancouver-based AI audio startup that operates the Ad Auris Audio Studio SaaS platform for publishers and the Ad Auris Play consumer app, converting written articles into branded synthetic-voice audio distributed via podcast platforms and publisher websites.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Ad Auris industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Publisher Audio Narration Software
- NAICS
- Sound Recording Industries (5122), Other Sound Recording Industries (512290), Software Publishers (513210)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Advertising (7310)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Voice Cloning, Dubbing & Audio Generative Media (HDAAAFAK)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Audio Production & Podcasting (BPAFAIAE), Multilingual Multimedia Localization (Subtitling, Dubbing, Voiceover) (MPAAANAH), Ad Tech & Programmatic Audio Platforms (MPAIADAH), Sound Post-Production (Dialogue, ADR, Foley, Mixing) (MPADAGAC)
Keywords
Where Ad Auris is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Vancouver
- HQ country
- Canada
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Ad Auris business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations
Revenue model
- Subscription Plans for Publications: SaaS subscription model for publishers to access the AI Audio Studio for creating customized narrations, with different pricing tiers to fit publication needs
- Advertising in Audio Narrations: Publishers can integrate advertisements into their narrations using Google Ad Manager, creating a secondary revenue stream from audio content
- Premium/Premium Audio Content: Leverage analytics to strategically offer audio as premium content for subscribers
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | Pricing tiers available for publications |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels6 records
Ad Auris product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Ad Auris sells an AI Audio Studio SaaS platform that converts publishers' written articles into brand-aligned synthetic-voice audio narrations via a three-layer process (text cleaning, synthetic voice generation, and human sound-engineer post-production). It also offers Ad Auris Play, a consumer-facing web app that lets end users paste any article URL to generate and save audio narrations, with features including RSS auto-narration, one-line website embed, podcast distribution to Spotify/Apple Podcasts, Google Ad Manager monetization, and a live engagement analytics dashboard.
Product overview
Ad Auris is a two-product AI audio company consisting of the Ad Auris Audio Studio (core B2B platform for publishers) and Ad Auris Play (consumer-facing app). The Audio Studio uses AI text-to-speech technology with human sound engineer customization to help publishers convert written content into brand-aligned audio narrations. Features include instant RSS auto-narration, live analytics, and podcast distribution to Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Ad Auris Play is a separate consumer app allowing end-users to browse existing narrations or create their own from any article URL, giving listeners control over content accessibility.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Ad Auris Play: A platform where listeners can browse existing spoken-word audio and create narrations of articles they prefer to listen to. Currently in beta mode.
Products and services
- Ad Auris Audio Studio AI-powered text-to-audio SaaS studio for publishers that converts written articles into customizable synthetic voice narrations using a three-layer process (text cleaning, synthetic voice generation, human sound-engineer post-production). Includes RSS auto-narration, one-line website embed, live engagement analytics, podcast distribution, and ad monetization. Target users: independent publishers, newsrooms, writers, and bloggers.
- Ad Auris Play Consumer-facing web app (beta) where listeners can browse existing audio narrations or paste any article URL to generate a personalized audio version and manage a personal library. Empowers end users to control which articles are narrated, reversing the traditional publisher-controlled model.
Quantifiable outcome
- Bloomberg increased average stories per app session from 2.5 to 6 after adding text-to-audio
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Ad Auris
Customer profileNamed customers6 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Ad Auris technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration12 records
AI capability4 records
Feature7 records
Ad Auris partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Four partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- Google Cloud Accelerator CanadacoreSelected startup in the Google Cloud Accelerator Canada program providing mentorship, technical project support, and cloud infrastructure. Ad Auris was selected among 10 Canadian startups in this virtual accelerator program.
- SpotifycorePodcast distribution platform partner. Ad Auris enables publishers to distribute audio narrations to Spotify via RSS feed integration.
- Apple PodcastscorePodcast distribution platform partner. Ad Auris enables publishers to distribute audio narrations to Apple Podcasts via RSS feed integration.
- Google Ad ManagercoreAdvertising integration partner enabling publishers to monetize audio narrations with programmatic ads through Google Ad Manager.
Scale indicators4 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Ad Auris competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- ElevenLabs: Leading AI voice synthesis platform offering high-fidelity text-to-speech and voice cloning for creators, publishers, and enterprises. Directly competes with Ad Auris on synthetic voice quality and publisher use cases, but at significantly greater scale and funding.
- PlayHT: AI text-to-speech platform with voice cloning and an audio publishing tool (PlayHT 2.0) targeting publishers, blogs, and creators — overlapping directly with Ad Auris's core B2B Audio Studio offering.
- WellSaid Labs: Enterprise-grade AI voice platform for brands and content teams to produce studio-quality voiceovers. Competes with Ad Auris for the same publisher and brand-customer base.
- Murf AI: AI voice generator with studio-quality synthetic voices for content creators, podcasts, and e-learning. Overlaps with Ad Auris in AI-narrated audio for publishers and content producers.
- Speechify: Consumer and enterprise TTS product that converts articles, PDFs, and documents into audio. Competes on the same 'listen to written content' use case Ad Auris enables for end-users and publishers.
Emerging players
- Descript: Audio/video editing platform with AI voice features (Overdub) and transcription. Adjacent in the AI audio creation workflow for podcasters and content teams that Ad Auris also serves.
- Resemble AI: AI voice cloning and TTS platform with realtime synthesis for media, entertainment, and enterprise use cases. Partial overlap with Ad Auris on AI narration for publishers and content.
- Sonantic (Spotify): AI expressive voice platform acquired by Spotify in 2022. Highly relevant peer — and a strategic risk — as Spotify could integrate Sonantic's TTS directly into its podcast/news distribution stack that Ad Auris currently relies on.
Broad incumbents
- Google Cloud Text-to-Speech: Google's TTS API offering neural voices across many languages. As a broader incumbent (and given Ad Auris's prior participation in Google Cloud Accelerator Canada), it represents both a partner and competitive substitute.
- Amazon Polly: AWS cloud TTS service used by developers to embed synthetic voices into apps and content workflows. Serves as a broader incumbent that publishers could substitute for Ad Auris's audio pipeline.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Ad Auris social profiles
Digital presenceAd Auris financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Ad Auris leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles3 records
Ad Auris funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds4 records
Investors4 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Ad Auris M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Ad Auris
What does Ad Auris do?
Ad Auris sells an AI Audio Studio SaaS platform that converts publishers' written articles into brand-aligned synthetic-voice audio narrations via a three-layer process (text cleaning, synthetic voice generation, and human sound-engineer post-production). It also offers Ad Auris Play, a consumer-facing web app that lets end users paste any article URL to generate and save audio narrations, with features including RSS auto-narration, one-line website embed, podcast distribution to Spotify/Apple Podcasts, Google Ad Manager monetization, and a live engagement analytics dashboard.
Is Ad Auris a public or private company?
Ad Auris is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Ad Auris founded?
Ad Auris was founded in 2020. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Ad Auris based?
Ad Auris is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, in the North America region.
How does Ad Auris make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Subscription Plans for Publications are the primary driver. The others are advertising in Audio Narrations and premium/Premium Audio Content.
Who are Ad Auris's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are ElevenLabs, PlayHT, WellSaid Labs, Murf AI and Speechify. Emerging players are Descript, Resemble AI and Sonantic (Spotify). Broad incumbents are Google Cloud Text-to-Speech and Amazon Polly.
Does Ad Auris have an API?
No public API is recorded for Ad Auris.
What industry is Ad Auris in?
Ad Auris's product category is Publisher Audio Narration Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAAAFAK, Voice Cloning, Dubbing & Audio Generative Media, with a secondary code of BPAFAIAE, Audio Production & Podcasting. Its NAICS code is 5122 and its SIC code is 7372.