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Press Release

1st Mar, 2023

Announcement of USD 1 million investment in Kardome Technology Ltd.


MarkLines Co., Ltd.
(Prime Market TSE3901)



  Automotive Fund Co., Ltd. (Automotive Fund; Head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; COO: Aya Miyake), a wholly owned subsidiary of MarkLines Co., Ltd. (Head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President & CEO: Makoto Sakai), announces that it has invested USD 1 million in Kardome Technology Ltd. (Head Office: Tel Aviv, Israel; CEO: Dani Cherkassky).

 

■About Kardome Technology Ltd. (Kardome)

  Kardome is a start-up company developing speech recognition software technology. While conventional technologies have difficulty in noisy environments, Kardome technology can recognize two or more voices simultaneously in noisy environments, identify the speaker, and track their location in space, all directly on the edge device. The technology provides highly accurate speech recognition and can be implemented in a wide variety of devices such as automobiles, consumer electronics, and industrial IoT.

  Automotive Fund expects that the need for speech recognition in noisy environments will increase with the spread of robo-taxis and self-driving cars. Understanding that Kardome's technology will be important for the spread of VUI (voice recognition user interface), a market that is expected to grow in the future, Automotive Fund has invested in Kardome.

 

■About Automotive Industry Support Fund 2021

  This is Japan's first "automotive industry-specific" fund, and this is its first investment outside Japan. After the investment, Automotive Fund will provide hands-on growth support by utilizing the network, recruiting, web marketing, and other functions of its parent company, MarkLines.

 

【Kardome Technology Ltd. profile】

Office Location Tel Aviv, Israel
CEO Dani Cherkassky
Business Start 2019
Business Scope Development and sales of 3D spatial voice recognition software that enables better speech and voice recognition accuracy in challenging soundscapes. Kardome voice user interface is implemented directly on the edge, and thus facilitates a secure, delay-less and seamless user experience with any smart device.
URL https://www.kardome.com/

 

【Automotive Fund Co., Ltd. profile】

Location Sanno Park Tower 14F, Nagatacho 2-11-1, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan
COO Aya Miyake
Business Start 2020
Business Scope A venture capital firm specializing in the automotive industry. The first fund, "Automotive Industry Support Fund 2021" (total amount: JPY 2.45 billion), has LP (limited partner) investments from 16 companies, mainly business companies in the automotive industry that are interested in open innovation through collaboration with venture companies such as automotive parts makers. The LPs will support the creation of win-win relationships between the invested start-up companies and the LP-investment companies by actively promoting business exchanges between them.

Contacts
 Automotive Fund Co., Ltd.
 Telephone:+81-3-4241-3913
 e-mail:fund@marklines.com
 Contacts: Shotaro Kawasaki

 

  MarkLines operates an automotive industry portal worldwide. Its mainstay is an online information service that allows users to search for information on global automobile production and sales, technology, and parts, as well as to promote their products to complete vehicle manufacturers and parts suppliers.
  Currently, the service is used by more than 4,700 companies that form the supply chain of the automotive industry, including global OEMs, components and materials manufacturers, and others. MarkLines also offer consulting, individual research, recruiting, promotional advertising, and benchmarking-related services, providing a one-stop total solution.