“Today is the first day of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and Disruptel CEO Alex Quinn told the 4thEst8 last week, while sharing a booth with display giant TCL Industries (second largest TV manufacturer to Samsung), at their request. This morning the startup announced its partnership with TCL.
“I’ve hinted this to you, and I’ve been working on this a long time, but it’s happening now,” Quinn told the 4thEst8 from Las Vegas, although he isn’t quite ready to talk about any formal deal at that time. “It’s a legit partnership… it’s just essentially the first phase in the process, but obviously quite, you know, mature for them to be unveiling us.”
Disruptel uses machine learning to identify content being played on a video screen, enabling viewers to interact with it by asking for information, or making a purchase, when they see something on the screen that catches their interest. An example would be if one were watching Red Notice on Netflix and saw Dwayne Johnson wearing a cool pair of sunglasses, they could ask the smart TV what kind of sunglasses they were – and where to buy them. Quinn says talks with TCL began months ago.
“They reached out to us. They saw our technology, and TCL really wants to be an innovator in AI, especially when it comes to TV’s and displays,” Quinn said. “So they were a very natural fit for us because of their scale, but also their ambition to be leaders in the AI space. We like that a lot, and here we are.”
CES has been the global showcase for innovation for more than 50 years.
Disruptel was founded in 2017 and has raised $2.5M total in an angel round, a seed round and from an Arch Grant. The $1.15M seed round in March 2021 was led by PJC and Progress Ventures with participation from individual investors Adam Cheyer, Mike Baker, Willard Simmons, and Andrew Olson. Disruptel is also a portfolio company of Capital Innovators in St. Louis, and a part of the ITEN innovation community.
“The company’s platform represents the next generation of voice assistants, powering a multi-modal solution that can meld voice requests with on-screen visual content and respond accordingly,” said Siri co-founder Adam Cheyer in a statement.
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