Editor’s note: This article is part of a series of profiles highlighting successful Ukrainian startups and businesses. The series is funded by the regional investment fund Ukraine-Moldova American Enterprise Fund (UMAEF) and created in partnership with Spend With Ukraine, a non-profit organization that launched a platform to showcase businesses with Ukrainian roots and provide one more meaningful way to support Ukraine – by choosing to spend with Ukraine. The series’ sponsors are not involved in the editorial process of the writing of these profiles.
Alex Serdiuk, CEO of Kyiv-based AI voice company Respeecher, knew the company was onto a winner when no one noticed that the voice of veteran Star Wars actor Mark Hamill had been altered to sound younger in Disney’s hit show The Mandalorian.
Respeecher used decades-old footage to clone a young Hamill’s voice and make it sound like the now 72-year-old Hollywood star had just stepped into the studio to record his lines. While some criticized the CGI used to make Hamill’s face youthful again, few were aware that his voice had been altered too. Disney only revealed the fact six months later.
“That was a huge confirmation that we are doing an amazing job. If you don’t hear a synthetic (voice), it means Respeecher did our job right,” Serdiuk told the Kyiv Independent on the rooftop of Respeecher’s downtown Kyiv office.
"If you don’t hear a synthetic (voice), it means Respeecher did our job right."
Serdiuk founded the company in 2018 alongside Dmytro Bielievtsov and Grant Reaber, a U.S. citizen, with $150,000 in investment and the idea to clone and alter voices. With Respeecher, Disney can feature the voices of actors who have passed away, such as James Earl Jones, or help laryngectomy patients by replicating their voice for an electro-larynx device, an electronic voice box.
Investors have funneled $4 million into the company since 2018. Respeecher has become the go-to for Hollywood studios with over 300 clients including Sony, Netflix, and Warner Bros., and has more than 170 projects already under its belt. The team is spearheading the new AI voice market, raking in six Emmys, two Webbys, and a Clio Award for advertising and design.
Despite making a name in such a short period, the company has battled a difficult two years. The mental turmoil of Russia’s full-scale invasion weighs heavy on the 30-person team, the majority of whom chose to remain in Ukraine, and operating costs have spiked by up to 10% due to expensive vital equipment like generators and Starlink satellite internet systems.
Moreover, the Hollywood strikes last year, when actors and writers fought for better pay and job security in the face of AI, ground production to a halt. Respeecher lost nearly half its revenue, resulting in staff layoffs as the company grappled to stay afloat.
Nevertheless, Serdiuk said the company still managed to grow by 40% last year from 2022 and predicts that the AI voice market, part of the broader digital likeness market, is on the precipice of huge growth as the technology enters the mainstream.
“The technology brings crazy disruption. You can now detach a human from their voice. You can speak perfect Ukrainian or Chinese,” he noted.
Serdiuk said that regulation in the U.S. and Europe is catching up, protecting celebrities’ rights to their likeness and curbing the Wild West of the last few years. In turn, celebrities are becoming more comfortable with the technology, allowing bigger projects to take place, such as a virtual Kiss concert that Disney has invested $200 million into.
Trust and ethics are important qualities for Respeecher, according to Serdiuk, especially as some companies have used AI voice technology to replicate celebrities' voices for pornography or to spread disinformation. Respeecher, Serdiuk said, first gets the permission of celebrities or their estates to clone a voice and doesn’t publicly release its tech to avoid misuse.
The company has also turned down offers from politicians keen to use the technology to run hyper-personalized ads, preferring to keep the company out of politics. With rising concerns over AI voices, Respeecher partners with deep-fake detectors to help train their software to pick up on AI voice patterns.
Building trust is important, Serdiuk believes, and helps Respeecher stay ahead of its competitors. However, he mentions that venture capitalists may not always agree, preferring rapid growth over ethics.
“Trust and quality go together,” he stressed.
The voice technology market is already crowded, with companies like Google and Amazon developing their own software, but none are suitable for films as they are noticeably artificial, Serdiuk said.
What separates Respeecher from other AI voice companies is its emphasis on the sound department, the largest part of the company, rather than just focusing on the technical aspect, according to Serdiuk.
While the quality of technology can be quantified and optimized, the naturalness of sound is subjective and requires a fine ear and creativity. “You have to optimize towards speaker identity; Whether it sounds like me or not, and whether it transfers all those details that make my voice special,” Serdiuk said.
He points to Ukraine’s highly regarded film dubbing sector and rich musical history as a key reason for its talented sound engineer pool. Even in the Kyiv office, instruments are scattered about, ready for the occasional workplace jam session.
While based in Kyiv, the company doesn’t have many projects within the Ukrainian film market, although Serdiuk believes this could change in the future if Ukraine's film industry gains more of an international standing. However, they occasionally work pro-bono with journalists to mask the voices of victims of war crimes while keeping the emotions and inflections that voice morphers eradicate.
Serdiuk is proud that his team has remained in Ukraine, despite investors unhappy with Respeecher being located outside Hollywood. But they did not lose any clients at the start of the full-scale invasion and even managed to stick to deadlines while missiles rained down across the country.
“The credibility we got in the market by that time was sufficient enough for our big clients to believe that we can deliver and that we are still in the game,” Serdiuk said.
“Two and a half years have passed and we keep doing projects.”
Respeecher is a prime example of Ukrainian innovation, transforming global industries, from entertainment and beyond, with its cutting-edge AI voice technology. Discover more pioneering Ukrainian businesses through Spend With Ukraine, where your support helps strengthen the economy and nurture exceptional talent.
Dominic Culverwell
Introducing official
merch from the Kyiv Independent
