Fluency Voice Technology, a UK-based provider of speech recognition systems, has secured £6 million in funding from European venture capital firms Kennet Venture Partners and Favonius Ventures.
Kennet Venture Partners will invest a total of £3.5m whilst Favonius Ventures will invest £2.5m.
Fluency develops speech recognition technology for use in call centres in the financial services, travel, utilities, retail and telecoms sectors. Its applications allow callers to carry out tasks - such as accessing account balances - using natural language over the telephone. Financial services customers inlcude Barclaycard, Wells fargo and Chelsea Building Society.
The vendor's flagship product is VoiceRunner, which allows both technical and non-technical staff to create and modify speech applications.
The new funding will be used to drive sales, both in the UK and US, and to expand product development.
Alex Green, CEO of Fluency, says: "We will use the new capital to expand our sales and marketing activities, particularly on major partnerships in the US, where we are gaining excellent momentum. We will also be developing our packaged applications offering, where we have a unique opportunity to lead the creation of a new market."