What Waverly Labs does

Waverly Labs is a Brooklyn-based private company founded in 2014 that originally developed Bluetooth earbuds for real-time translation. The company has pivoted to a software-only model, now operating as Sorenson Forum, a cloud-based real-time captioning and translation platform supporting 25+ languages and 40+ dialect variants. The platform offers three recording modes (Live Translate, Pause Translate, Hold to Talk), custom glossary functionality for domain-specific terminology, and professional video production features including Green Screen/Chroma Key integration and closed captions. The platform is accessible via web browser and iOS/Android apps, with frictionless guest participation via QR codes or shareable links that do not require account creation or software downloads. The website is now powered by Sorenson, with Terms of Use linking to sorenson.com, indicating an acquisition or close operational partnership with Sorenson, a major language services provider.

The business model is primarily product-led growth with a freemium entry point and paid subscription tiers. A dedicated educational pricing tier targets schools and universities with virtual classroom features and accessibility accommodations for students with special needs. Target customer segments include educational institutions (vertical), event organizers (conferences, keynotes, diplomatic events), and corporate enterprises requiring multilingual meeting and presentation support. The company has no named enterprise customers beyond generic segment categories, and marketing relies on direct website acquisition and organic word-of-mouth through the platform's QR-code sharing mechanism. Leadership is lean, with founder and CEO Andrew Ochoa heading a team of reportedly 1-10 employees including a product design lead and lead software engineer.

The company has raised approximately $7.37M cumulatively across multiple rounds from 2016 to 2022, including crowdfunding raises via StartEngine and a small late-stage round in September 2022. The current operating structure, with the Sorenson Forum brand and Sorenson-powered infrastructure, suggests Waverly Labs as a standalone operating entity is in transition or has been absorbed into Sorenson's broader portfolio of language services.

Name

Waverly Labs

Website

https://waverlylabs.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Waverly Labs, founded in 2014 in Brooklyn, operates as Sorenson Forum, a cloud-based real-time captioning and translation platform supporting 25+ languages. It serves educational institutions, event organizers, and corporate enterprises via a freemium SaaS model with mobile and web access.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Brooklyn

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Revenue model

1. Subscription Plans: Platform offers multiple plan tiers with the Free plan allowing basic access and paid plans providing additional features for professional and enterprise use cases
2. Educational Institution Pricing: Special pricing for schools and educational institutions with dedicated classroom features and accessibility options for students with special needs

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels1 record

Core offering

Waverly Labs, now operating under the Sorenson Forum brand, provides a real-time AI-powered captioning and translation platform for events, classrooms, and meetings. The platform supports 25+ languages with multiple dialects and offers three primary interaction modes: Live Translate, Pause Translate, and Hold to Talk. It is designed for frictionless guest participation via QR codes, supports custom glossaries for domain-specific terminology, and is compatible across multiple devices and platforms.

Product overview

Waverly Labs offers Sorenson Forum, a unified real-time captioning and translation platform designed for professional events and educational settings. The platform provides live speech recognition (ASR) with translation capabilities across 24+ languages and numerous dialects, featuring three distinct recording modes (Live Translate for automatic translation, Pause Translate for voice-controlled pauses, and Hold to Talk for button-controlled speech input). Sorenson Forum supports accessibility features including green screen/Chroma key integration for video broadcasting and closed captions, along with custom glossary terminology for domain-specific events. The platform enables hosts to create sessions that participants can join via QR codes or links without requiring software downloads, serving use cases including conferences, classrooms, meetings, and diplomatic events.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Sorenson Forum Sorenson Forum is Waverly Labs' real-time AI captioning and translation platform built for events, classrooms, and meetings. It supports 25+ languages with multiple dialects and offers Live Translate, Pause Translate, and Hold to Talk modes, custom glossary support, and frictionless guest participation via QR codes.

Named customers2 records

Segments3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability6 records

Feature7 records

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Microsoft Translator: Microsoft Translator is a broad translation API and live feature embedded across Microsoft 365, Teams, and Azure. It competes with Sorenson Forum through free/bundled real-time translation and captioning inside Teams meetings and education tools, leveraging Microsoft's massive distribution advantage.
• Google Translate: Google Translate provides free real-time text, voice, and conversation translation across 100+ languages and is integrated into Chrome, Android, and Google Meet. As a free or low-cost incumbent with massive R&D resources, it sets the price floor that Sorenson Forum must justify its premium subscription pricing against.
• Language Line Solutions: Language Line Solutions is a large incumbent interpretation and translation services provider serving healthcare, government, and enterprise customers via phone, video, and on-site interpreters. It overlaps with Sorenson Forum on professional interpretation services but relies primarily on human interpreters rather than AI.

Others

• Speechmatics: Speechmatics is an ASR technology provider offering speech-to-text APIs and language models to enterprise customers and developers. As an enabling infrastructure layer for real-time translation products, it could power Sorenson Forum's ASR or compete by offering similar capabilities directly to enterprise customers.

Direct peers

• Rev: Rev offers AI and human-powered transcription, captions, and translation services for media, enterprise, and education customers. It competes with Sorenson Forum on real-time captioning workflows and serves similar customer segments including educational institutions and corporate enterprises.
• Otter.ai: Otter.ai provides real-time AI meeting transcription, captions, and summaries for enterprise meetings and education. It overlaps significantly with Sorenson Forum on real-time ASR-driven captioning for meetings and educational institutions, and competes for similar SaaS budgets.
• Interprefy: Interprefy provides remote simultaneous interpretation (RSI) and live captioning for hybrid events, conferences, and corporate meetings. It targets the same multilingual event and corporate meeting segment as Sorenson Forum with comparable browser-based participation and interpreter marketplace models.
• KUDO: KUDO is a cloud-based multilingual meeting platform offering real-time AI interpretation and live captions across 200+ languages. It directly competes with Sorenson Forum for the same enterprise, event, and government interpretation use cases with similar subscription pricing and live session features.
• Wordly: Wordly offers an AI-powered real-time interpretation and captioning platform for meetings, events, and webinars. As a software-only AI interpretation provider with similar language coverage and self-serve onboarding, it directly competes with Sorenson Forum in the same SMB and enterprise event segment.

Emerging players

• CaptionHub: CaptionHub provides automated captioning, subtitling, and translation tools for broadcasters, media companies, and enterprises. It overlaps with Sorenson Forum's video captioning workflows but focuses on post-production workflows rather than live event interpretation.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/waverlylabsinc
• Facebookfacebook.com/waverlylabsinc
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/waverly-labs

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds6 records

Investors2 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Waverly Labs