Empath
Empath is a Japanese voice-emotion-analysis AI that detects joy, anger, sadness, calmness and a proprietary energy-level score from acoustic features in any language. It serves 4,300+ users across 50+ countries — primarily contact centers, plus gaming, automotive, healthcare and public-safety customers — via API, SDK, and vertical SaaS products operated by CAC identity Corporation.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2017
- HeadquartersSetagaya, Japan
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Empath does
Empath is a Japanese voice-emotion-analysis AI developed and now commercialized by CAC identity Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of TSE Prime-listed CAC Holdings (parent company of CAC). Its core technology analyzes physical acoustic features of speech — pitch, volume, speed, intonation and timbre — using proprietary algorithms trained on voice data from tens of thousands of individuals, detecting four basic emotions (joy, anger, sadness, calm) plus a proprietary "energy level" (genki-do) indicator. Because the model is acoustic rather than semantic, it operates in any language in real time, which is positioned as the key differentiation against speech-content NLP systems.
The product portfolio centers on the Web Empath API (JavaScript-embeddable, basic plan at 30,000 analyses/month), an Embedded SDK for Windows server deployment, and the EVG standalone desktop application, all layered with vertical SaaS products: Beluga Box SaaS (per-minute emotion analytics for contact centers), mimity (LLM-augmented call quality scoring), DeepEmo (9-emotion 3D game character expression generation), My Empathy (enterprise mental-health checks) and Kachimen (interview practice). Distribution combines a self-serve developer/API channel, OEM integrations through Comdesign's CT-e1/SaaS (1,745+ tenants, 31,000+ seats) and Serverworks' Amazon Connect package, and CAC's direct enterprise salesforce, with the company reporting deployments in 50+ countries and 4,300+ registered users across contact center, BPO, telecom, insurance, automotive, gaming, healthcare, public safety, and manufacturing segments.
The business was originally founded as 株式会社Empath in October 2017 by Shimoji Takaaki and Yamazaki Hazumu. After winning multiple international awards (Google for Startups Growth Academy, J-Startup / METI, Stanford US-Japan Innovation Awards, Plug and Play, ICT Spring, VivaTech) and being selected for the NatWest Fintech Programme cohort (announced 2026), the Empath business was transferred to CAC in April 2023 to leverage CAC's enterprise sales network and complementary image-analysis technology, while the original entity continued as 株式会社Poetics with a different product. Revenue is not separately disclosed; only ~$2.86M of venture funding (SBI Investment, SX Capital Japan, 2018) is documented.
Empath firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Empath
- Legal name
- CAC identity Corporation
- Website
- https://webempath.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2017
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Empath is a Japanese voice-emotion-analysis AI that detects joy, anger, sadness, calmness and a proprietary energy-level score from acoustic features in any language. It serves 4,300+ users across 50+ countries — primarily contact centers, plus gaming, automotive, healthcare and public-safety customers — via API, SDK, and vertical SaaS products operated by CAC identity Corporation.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Empath industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Speech and Voice Analytics
- NAICS
- Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (541910)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Emotion, Sentiment & Paralinguistic Intelligence (HDAAAFAI)
Keywords
Where Empath is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Setagaya
- HQ country
- Japan
- HQ region
- Asia
Offices1 record
Markets served
Empath business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations
Revenue model
- Web Empath API (SaaS): Cloud-based API service for voice emotion analysis. Billed monthly with tiered usage. Basic tier includes 30,000 analyses per month. Higher usage billed at per-analysis rates.
- Embedded SDK: Windows server library for embedding emotion analysis into custom systems. Sold as perpetual license with annual maintenance fees. Enables unlimited-duration analysis per server.
- EVG App (Standalone): Windows desktop application for voice analysis. Sold as annual subscription per PC.
- Beluga Box SaaS: Cloud call center solution with per-minute billing. Base price includes setup fee plus monthly base fee covering up to 600,000 minutes, with overage charges per minute. Optional auto-scoring and mental support features available as add-ons.
- DeepEmo: 3D game expression generation service. Initial setup fee includes model tuning; base fee covers up to 500 files with per-file overage charges.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | Web Empath API - Basic Plan |
| One time/ perpetual license | Multi-year contract | Web Empath API - Initial Setup |
| One time/ perpetual license | Multi-year contract | SDK - Initial Setup |
| Subscription | Annual | EVG App (Windows) |
| Hybrid | Monthly | Beluga Box SaaS - Base Plan |
| Subscription | Monthly | Beluga Box SaaS - Optional Features |
| Subscription | Monthly | DeepEmo |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels6 records
Marketing channels6 records
Empath product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Empath provides voice emotion analysis AI that detects emotional states (joy, anger, sadness, calm, plus a proprietary energy level) from acoustic features of speech rather than semantic content, enabling language-agnostic emotion recognition. It is delivered as a cloud Web API, embedded Windows SDK, and standalone EVG app, plus vertical SaaS solutions including Beluga Box and mimity for contact centers, DeepEmo for game animation, and Kachimen for interview practice.
Product overview
Empath offers a comprehensive voice emotion analysis AI platform with multiple deployment options. The core Empath technology analyzes voice characteristics to detect emotions (happiness, anger, sadness, calmness) and energy level. Delivery mechanisms include Web Empath API (cloud), Embedded SDK (on-premise), and EVG standalone app. The product portfolio extends to call center solutions (Beluga Box SaaS, mimity), gaming applications (DeepEmo), healthcare (Myempathy), and job interview training (Kachimen), spanning 50 countries with 4,300+ enterprise users.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Beluga Box SaaS: Cloud-based emotion analysis service for call centers providing customer satisfaction measurement, operator care, and response quality evaluation.
- mimity
- DeepEmo
- カチメン！
- My Empathy
- Web Empath API
Quantifiable outcome
- 95% reduction in facial expression animation man-hours for 3D game character development (FORSPOKEN)
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Empath
Customer profileNamed customers12 records
Segments7 records
Ideal customer profiles5 records
Empath technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration4 records
AI capability4 records
Feature8 records
Empath partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Six partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.
- NatWestminorEmpath_AI (the UK entity or brand associated with Empath) was selected for NatWest's second Fintech Programme — a 12-week AI-focused innovation initiative. Empath joins 7 other UK fintechs at pre-Series A or Series A stages to collaborate with the bank on improving customer experiences through AI.
- Prodelight (プロディライト)minorCo-hosted a webinar with Prodelight on 'AI Mental Care for Employees' — combining Empath's voice emotion analysis with Prodelight's cloud PBX INNOVERA for remote work mental health monitoring solutions.
- Comdesign (コムデザイン)coreBeluga Box SaaS is integrated into Comdesign's cloud CTI platform CT-e1/SaaS as an optional feature. This serverless integration allows CT-e1/SaaS customers (1,745+ tenants, 31,000+ seats) to easily adopt emotion analysis without additional hardware. The partnership covers operator wellness monitoring and call quality evaluation.
- Serverworks (サーバーワークス)coreEmpath is integrated as an option into Serverworks' Amazon Connect All-in-One package for cloud contact centers. This enables remote/home-based call center operators to have their emotional state (energy level) monitored by supervisors, addressing communication gaps in work-from-home call center environments.
- Cloud BuildersminorCloud Builders, an AWS-focused recruitment service, featured Empath and mimity as 4 recommended AI tools for improving productivity. Listed in their 'Top AI Tools for Cloud Builders' feature.
- CAC Holdings / CAC (株式会社シーエーシー)coreEmpath voice emotion AI business was transferred from original株式会社Empath to CAC in April 2023. Currently operated by CAC identity Corporation (CACのグループ会社). CAC's sales network, customer base, and complementary image analysis technology support Empath's expansion and multi-modal AI development.
Scale indicators6 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Empath competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Vokaturi: Vokaturi (now part of Pegasystems) provides emotion detection from voice audio for customer experience analytics. Closely comparable to Empath's call-center emotion AI offering.
- Cogito: Cogito delivers real-time voice-based emotion coaching for contact center agents. Direct functional overlap with Empath's real-time operator wellness/quality applications.
- CallMiner: CallMiner is a speech and emotion analytics platform for customer interaction insight across contact centers and CX teams, competing for the same enterprise QA budgets as mimity.
- Hume AI: Hume AI builds foundation models for voice and language emotion / paralinguistic intelligence, with APIs that infer emotional states and expressive dimensions from speech. It is the closest direct competitor to Empath's voice emotion AI core.
- Behavioral Signals: Behavioral Signals applies emotion and behavior recognition from voice to contact center QA, sales coaching, and conversational AI — direct overlap with Beluga Box / mimity in call center QA.
- Observe.AI: Observe.AI provides contact-center conversation intelligence with emotion/sentiment scoring on top of speech analytics. Operates in the same call-center QA buying motion as Beluga Box and mimity.
- audEERING: Germany-based audEERING develops voice emotion and paralinguistic analysis technology (Devvoxx/OpenSMILE heritage), serving automotive, call center, and academic markets. Directly comparable to Empath on voice-affect inference.
- Affectiva (Smart Eye AB): Affectiva, now part of Smart Eye, is a pioneer in emotion AI for facial and voice analysis. It competes in adjacent (facial) modalities and is a reference point for the voice+face multimodal path Empath may pursue via CAC's image stack.
Emerging players
- Realeyes: Realeyes applies emotion AI (primarily facial) to ad effectiveness measurement. Adjacent overlap with Empath's emotion-aware content use cases (e.g., Glico) and a reference for emotive advertising analytics.
Broad incumbents
- NICE: NICE is a large contact-center analytics and customer experience platform with broad emotion/sentiment and voice analytics capabilities — overlapping as a broad incumbent rather than a focused specialist.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Empath social profiles
Digital presenceEmpath financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Empath leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles2 records
Empath funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds2 records
Investors3 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Empath 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 Empath
What does Empath do?
Empath provides voice emotion analysis AI that detects emotional states (joy, anger, sadness, calm, plus a proprietary energy level) from acoustic features of speech rather than semantic content, enabling language-agnostic emotion recognition. It is delivered as a cloud Web API, embedded Windows SDK, and standalone EVG app, plus vertical SaaS solutions including Beluga Box and mimity for contact centers, DeepEmo for game animation, and Kachimen for interview practice.
Is Empath a public or private company?
Empath is a private company. It is classified as corporate owned and is currently operating.
When was Empath founded?
Empath was founded in 2017. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Empath based?
Empath is headquartered in Setagaya, Japan, in the Asia region.
How does Empath make money?
Five revenue lines are on record. Web Empath API (SaaS) is the primary driver. The others are embedded SDK, EVG App (Standalone), beluga Box SaaS and deepEmo.
Who are Empath's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Vokaturi, Cogito, CallMiner, Hume AI, Behavioral Signals, Observe.AI, audEERING and Affectiva (Smart Eye AB). Realeyes is listed as an emerging player. NICE is listed as a broad incumbent.
Does Empath have an API?
Yes. Empath offers a Web API for voice emotion analysis that can be embedded into websites using JavaScript sample code. The API processes voice/audio data and returns emotion analysis results including happiness, anger, sadness, calmness, and energy level (genki-do). The API supports real-time analysis and works with any language as it analyzes voice characteristics rather than speech content. A REST API variant called Beluga Box is also available for enterprise use, outputting customer satisfaction, four emotions, energy level, and acoustic indicators. Developer documentation is at webempath.net.
What industry is Empath in?
Empath's product category is Speech and Voice Analytics. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAAAFAI, Emotion, Sentiment & Paralinguistic Intelligence. Its NAICS code is 541910 and its SIC code is 7372.