Amadeus backs Vocal IQ in first investment from latest fund

Amadeus drew down capital from Amadeus IV Early Stage Fund, which held a first close on £33m in January 2013.

Cambridge Enterprise also participated in the funding round, which will be used to boost headcount and develop specific applications for the company's spoken dialogue systems software.

Steve Young, professor of information engineering at the University of Cambridge, is chairman of Vocal IQ and a co-founder of Entropic, a former portfolio company of Amadeus that was acquired by Microsoft in the 1990s.

Hermann Hauser, partner at Amadeus, will join the company's board.

Company
Founded in 2011, Vocal IQ is a spinout of the University of Cambridge's Dialogue Systems Group. The company's software uses machine learning to improve dialogue interactions in voice-activated systems.

The firm's spoken dialogue technology will be developed for application in the automotive, educaion and retail sectors. The company is currently developing a prototype application for a large, global car manufacturer.

People
Hermann Hauser led the deal for Amadeus.

Advisers
Equity – Taylor Vinters (Legal).

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