Kaltura acquires eSelf, founded by Snap’s AI creator, in $27 million deal

Kaltura, a New York-based AI video platform company, has acquired eSelf.ai, an Israel-based startup that creates conversational avatars — digital humans produced by artificial intelligence that can converse with users — for about $27 million. Kaltura announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire eSelf, a platform that supports more than 30 languages ​​and features an easy-to-use studio for creating, customizing and publishing photo-realistic digital avatars.

Co-founded in 2023 by CEO Alan Baker, who previously sold his first startup, Voca, to Snap in 2020, and CTO Elon Shoshan, eSelf brings deep technical expertise in creating speech-to-video, low-latency speech recognition, and screen understanding, which allows avatars to see and respond to what’s on a user’s screen. The eSelf founders will join Kaltura to oversee the integration of eSelf technology into the company, with all current eSelf employees also joining.

Ron Yekutil, co-founder and CEO of Kaltura, told TechCrunch that the two-year-old startup has a small but strong team of about 15 AI experts. He noted that Baker’s previous company specialized in natural language processing, which helps computers understand human speech and computer vision, saying it was “a very leading company in the field of conversational speech robots. So he’s an expert.” [in this field]”And that’s what we bought,” Yekutiel said.

Kaltura offers a range of cloud-based software solutions designed for advanced video applications, including a corporate video portal similar to YouTube’s own site, tools for webinars and virtual events, integrations that integrate video learning into university learning management systems, or platforms that organize online courses.

The Nasdaq-listed company also offers virtual classroom products and comprehensive TV streaming solutions. Kaltura’s video platform serves more than 800 enterprise customers, helping them engage users in sales, marketing, customer service, education, and entertainment. Its clients include technology giants such as Amazon, Oracle, Salesforce, SAP, Adobe and IBM, as well as leading banks, insurance companies, consulting firms, pharmaceutical companies and universities in the US.

Kaltura plans to integrate eSelf.ai’s virtual agent technology across its video offerings; The integration aims to enable agents that can listen, speak, and interpret user screens in real time.

“This acquisition was very strategic. We were actively evaluating several companies to find the right one. We decided on this [eSelf] “They were best in class for real-time synchronous conversation — not just on-demand lip-sync — and they had a great suite of speech-to-text and text-to-speech technologies,” Yekutiel said in an interview with TechCrunch. “Beyond technology, there was also a strong cultural and geographic alignment, which was crucial to us.”

Why would a video company bet on conversational avatars?

Over the past two decades, businesses have mostly used video to broadcast, upload, and manage content. But this is changing quickly. Thanks to AI, videos can now be created instantly – with extreme personalization and context – giving each viewer their own personalized experience, tailored to what they need at that moment, Yekutil explained.

“We started with video, then moved to personalized video, and now, with eSelf technology, we’re adding human-like capabilities — faces, eyes, mouths, ears — to make our AI agents speak and express,” Yekutil said.

Kaltura is evolving from a video platform to a video-based customer and employee experience provider, where video serves as the interface. Unlike most avatar companies that only offer a “face”, they provide the complete workflow – the avatar, intelligence, and knowledge associated with the organization. The focus is not just on video streaming; The CEO added that it achieves measurable business results and returns on investment.

The company plans to launch standalone and embeddable agents for uses including sales, marketing, customer support, and training. Targeted sectors include education, media and communications, e-commerce, financial services, healthcare and pharmaceuticals.

Asked about media reports that Kaltura was exploring a sale or merger worth between $400 million and $500 million, Yekutil told TechCrunch that Kaltura had explored opportunities with a range of companies, including “potential acquisitions, mergers with similar sized companies, and connections with some larger players.” But he said she had never come close to a deal like the one reported. He also pointed to Kaltura’s recent acquisitions, including its fourth company, as evidence of the company’s continued commitment to its current strategy.

This marks Kaltura’s fourth acquisition to date. The company acquired cloud TV solution Tvinci in 2014, followed by Rapt Media in 2018, and video conferencing platform Newrow in 2020. eSelf’s most recent funding round was $4.5 million announced in December 2024.

Kaltura, which went public in 2021, has revenue of about $180 million, is profitable on an adjusted EBITDA and cash flow basis, and has about 600 employees.