Krisp, an Armenian startup, produces a software that blocks background noise on phone calls

An Armenian startup company, Krisp, received $5 million in what is known as a series A financing for its software and technology, which silences ambient sounds and isolates voice for calls, reported Tech Crunch on Wednesday.

With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing many to work from home, or in isolation, the demand for the software has surged, with many companies opting for the product for their employees and business ventures.

According to Tech Crunch, Krisp applies a machine learning system to audio in real time that has been trained on what is and isn’t the human voice. “What isn’t a voice gets carefully removed even during speech, and what remains sounds clearer. It can work on practically any device,” Tech Crunch explained.

Initially, the company began offering its standalone software for free, with a paid tier that removed time limits.

The Krisp app, now available on Windows and Macs, uses machine learning to silence background noise so the voices of the people on the call are heard more clearly.

Krisp co-founder and CEO Davit Baghdasaryan told Tech Crunch that the COVID-19 crisis accelerated the company’s expansion plans, with larger businesses signing up, among them a large caller center with 40,000 employees.

The company was founded in Armenia and currently has two teams, one of which is based in the United States.

Baghdasaryan also explained that all voice data collected on the app remains private and is stored the device and is not sent to a cloud server, alleviating concern regarding privacy.

“The next iteration will tell you not just about noise, but give you real time feedback on how you are performing as a speaker,” Baghdasaryan explained to Tech Crunch.

The series A funding, which is when investors commit their capital in exchange for an equity interest in a company, came from Storm Ventures,  Sierra Ventures, TechNexus and Hive Ventures.