You may remember Maluuba as the little voice search engine that could. The company launched at Disrupt, and while they didn’t make it into the final round, they did end up expanding into new territories and form new partnerships very quickly.
We caught up with some of the team at the TC Toronto meetup to check in on the Siri competitor.
If you’re unfamiliar (and thus uncool), Maluuba is an Android-based Siri competitor that focuses more on doing things than having a personal assistant, per se. The app ties in with all kinds of other third party apps, and of course, lets you set calendar appointments, reminders, and location-based alerts.
The team explained that Maluuba wants to be much more than Siri. It’s not just about giving you a better phone, but making natural language a mainstream part of our lives, especially where it concerns shopping.
The main focus right now, however, is shifting from a company that builds products to a company that supports its product’s users. It’s all about digesting feedback.
An exit isn’t the goal here.
Perhaps, “if the company is aligned with [their] vision,” an acquisition might be considered. But for now, Maluuba wants to grow into a big company that doesn’t just come on Android phones, but shows up on all kinds of devices.
Maluuba’s mission is to empower people with the ability to find exactly what they want by speaking to their smart phone. Maluuba’s proprietary, patent-pending engine provides superior capabilities to traditional voice recognition systems. Asking a question like, “what movies are playing nearby?” enables users to buy tickets, find theater directions, and share search results on social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. The Maluuba language engine is a product of two years of advanced research in artificial intelligence, machine learning...
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