Klaxon AI, a ground-breaking automated podcast creation and publishing platform, has been awarded £50,000 funding by Innovate UK to develop a self-serve podcast advertising creation system aimed at small business owners.
The start-up is developing a service enabling anyone to create their own professional audio adverts quickly and easily without the need for a studio.
Mark Woodward, Farsley-based co-founder of Klaxon AI, said: “We’ve had quite a lot of interest already from small businesses who can’t afford to make podcasts or podcast adverts.
“We have just launched our fully-managed service for businesses and content creators, where we turn newsletters and blogs into podcasts and this Innovate UK funding will accelerate the extension of this service to enable anyone to create podcast adverts too.”
Klaxon AI was founded last year by former journalists and media professionals Arup Biswas and Mr Woodward.
“Podcasts are the fastest growing medium worldwide but they are time-consuming, challenging and expensive to make, meaning that most creators quit before their fourth episode,” said Mr Biswas.
“Our mission is to democratise podcasting by enabling anyone, anywhere, to create a podcast in minutes without the need for expensive equipment, technical expertise, a script, or even a broadcast voice.”
The platform www.klaxon.ai harnesses artificial intelligence to research, script, voice and create podcasts at the touch of a button.
The user selects a topic, length, language and voice for the podcast and the software then delivers a finished podcast in minutes.
Mr Woodward added: “We will adapt the proprietary technology to enable anyone to similarly create professional podcast adverts effortlessly.”
The funding was awarded as part of Innovate UKʼs Creative Catalyst programme.