Otter.ai, an artificial intelligence company specializing in meeting transcription, has secured $320 million in growth financing from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund to expand its corporate business and increase its international presence. Announced on October 20, 2026, the funding will support higher sales and marketing spending as the company seeks to accelerate enterprise revenue growth.
Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Sam Liang told Reuters that the company must repay the money with interest. He said repayments would be funded by revenue generated through increased sales and marketing activity. General Catalyst’s fund may also provide additional capital after the initial financing has been used.
Otter.ai started as a consumer-focused application and has grown to more than 40 million users. Its technology helps people transcribe and organize conversations, particularly meetings. The company is now concentrating on expanding its enterprise business, where it sees opportunities to generate more revenue by attracting corporate customers and encouraging broader adoption within organizations.
Liang said Otter.ai intends to double or triple its sales and marketing budget. The company also plans to expand its relatively small sales team and increase promotional efforts in overseas markets. The United States remains its largest market, followed by Canada, Britain and India. Otter.ai supports several languages, including Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Mandarin, helping it serve customers across different regions.
The company has identified enterprise subscriptions as its fastest-growing business segment. Liang said he hopes to triple enterprise revenue next year, although he did not disclose the segment’s current revenue, the proportion of users who pay for the service or a specific financial target for the expansion.
According to Liang, corporate subscriptions can be more durable because employees often use the platform collectively. When multiple members of a team rely on the same service to document meetings and access information, it can become part of their regular workflow. This shared use may encourage organizations to maintain their subscriptions over time.
Otter.ai also hopes to turn its existing presence in major companies into additional paying business. The company said approximately 86% of Fortune 500 companies already have users on its platform, largely through organic adoption. Its next priority is to convert more of these users into paying customers by expanding its sales operations and marketing efforts.
This approach could help Otter.ai build on the familiarity its product has already established within large organizations. Rather than relying exclusively on finding new customers, the company can target businesses where employees are already using its technology and demonstrate the value of broader, paid adoption.
Otter.ai said it has generated more than $1.5 billion in customer return on investment. The estimate draws partly on surveys showing that paying customers save at least four hours each week. It also incorporates an analysis by a large asset manager that found a return of at least $10 for every $1 spent.
The company is using these findings to demonstrate the potential benefits of its services for businesses. By reducing the time employees spend documenting meetings and helping them retrieve information from conversations, the platform aims to improve workplace efficiency. However, the financial benefits cited are based on the company’s assessment and the research it referenced.
Otter.ai’s expansion plans come as it seeks to establish a stronger position in the enterprise market while continuing to serve its substantial individual-user base. The new financing gives it resources to invest in customer acquisition without immediately diluting existing shareholders’ ownership.
Liang also confirmed that Otter.ai eventually intends to pursue an initial public offering. However, he said the company wants to build its enterprise revenue further before taking that step.
The success of the funding strategy will depend on whether the planned increase in sales and marketing expenditure produces stronger subscription revenue, attracts more corporate customers and supports international growth. For now, Otter.ai is prioritizing enterprise expansion as it prepares for its next stage of development.
