AI dictation startup Wispr raised $280 million in Series B funding at a $2 billion valuation, the company announced on Monday, August 17, 2026. The round was led by Menlo Ventures and brings Wispr’s total funding to over $361 million — less than 10 months after its previous raise.
Existing investors Notable Capital, NEA, Neo Ventures, 8VC, and MVP Ventures participated in the round, joined by new backers including Acrew, Forerunner, Goodwater, Peak XV, Together Fund, and PLUS Capital.
Wispr plans to use the capital to expand into new product areas. The company has already launched a meeting note-taker tool that displays summaries and action items, putting it in competition with Granola, Fireflies, and Read AI. The company also sees potential to extend the note-taker’s capabilities to integrate with other tools and generate documents or email drafts.
Alongside the funding announcement, Wispr introduced a new speech model called Canto, aimed at addressing recent quality issues with its core dictation product, Wispr Flow. The company said Canto will reduce error rates from 30% to under 10%, responding to complaints from users over the past several weeks.
The funding comes as competition in the AI dictation space intensifies, with apps like Willow, Monologue, Aqua, and Superwhisper vying for users, alongside a growing number of free or lower-priced tools targeting prosumers.
Since November 2025, Wispr has released its dictation app on Android and expanded its go-to-market teams in India and the U.K. The company is also partnering with hardware makers, including the Oasis ring, to enable dictation without speaking loudly. Last month, Wispr launched Wispr Interface Labs under Ariya Rastrow, an early contributor to Amazon Alexa, with a focus on exploring new interfaces for human-computer interaction.
Source: TechCrunch