Dubformer, an Amsterdam-based startup, is making waves in the film industry with its innovative AI dubbing technology, recently securing a $3.6 million seed investment. Led by Almaz Capital and joined by notable investors like Arul Menezes, founder of Microsoft Translator, and Funa Maduka, former Head of International Original Film at Netflix, this funding aims to enhance Dubformer’s proprietary Emotion Transfer technology.
Traditional dubbing often falls short in capturing the original performance’s emotional depth, leading to disengaged audiences. Dubformer’s Emotion Transfer technology addresses this by focusing on voice characteristics such as pitch, volume, and speed, generating natural and nuanced dubbing that mirrors the original actor’s intent.
The global video localization market, valued at $7 billion, is expanding at a 16% compound annual growth rate, driven by the increasing demand for localized content. However, many AI dubbing tools cater to consumer applications, leaving professional media companies underserved. Dubformer fills this gap by offering studio-grade dubbing that meets the high standards of the film and television industry.
Founded in September 2023 by Anton Dvorkovich, a machine translation expert and former Head of NLP & Speech at Yandex, Dubformer has rapidly emerged as a key player in AI dubbing. The company’s technology captures intonation, rhythm, and acoustic nuances, ensuring that the dubbed content resonates with the original performance’s emotional depth.
In 2024, Dubformer’s AI technology was ranked highest in speech translation at the Workshop on Machine Translation, outperforming industry giants like Google Translate, DeepL, and ChatGPT. The company has expanded to over 200 clients across the US and Europe, including Paramount, Little Dot Studios, and Mainstream Media. Partnerships with Voxx (Los Angeles), Presto (Czech Republic), and Gobavo (Turkey) have further solidified its global presence.
With offices in Amsterdam, Wilmington (Delaware), and Belgrade, Dubformer is scaling its operations to meet the rising demand for high-quality AI dubbing. The recent funding will accelerate localization efforts in Europe and beyond, catering to major media companies seeking high-quality, emotionally expressive dubbing.
Dubformer’s AI-driven approach and focus on studio-quality dubbing position it to lead the future of media localization, bridging linguistic gaps and making global content more engaging and accessible than ever. The company’s next steps include expanding its research and development to further refine Emotion Transfer, increasing its language coverage beyond 130 languages, and strengthening partnerships with media giants and production studios.
By capturing the acoustic characteristics—such as echoes and reverberations—Dubformer enhances the overall experience, ensuring that dubbing feels natural and immersive. As the demand for localized content continues to grow, Dubformer is at the forefront of delivering emotionally rich and authentic dubbing solutions to the film and television industry.
