Circleback, a startup offering AI-powered meeting transcription services, has raised $2.5 million in a seed round from prominent investors, including Transpose Platform, Rebel Fund, Pioneer Fund, and several angel investors. The company, founded in 2023 by Ali Haghani and Kevin Jacyna, aims to provide more than just meeting transcripts, focusing on detailed notes and action items to help users extract valuable insights from their meetings.

Circleback's founders, both experienced engineers from Stripe and Tableau, respectively, initially set out to create a meeting tool that would serve as a searchable knowledge base. Over time, they developed a tech stack to extract the best knowledge from meetings, with a key focus on note-taking. This approach has proven to be a key growth engine for the company, as users began to rely on the tool for notes.

The company's product is a cross-platform app available on Mac, Windows, and web, allowing users to invite the AI assistant to join their meetings or record audio from their system. After each meeting, users receive detailed notes with different sections and key points mentioned by speakers. Additionally, the tool generates action items for all participants, making it a valuable resource for meeting organizers and attendees alike.

What sets Circleback apart from competitors is its ability to collate notes, action items, and next steps in a single place. According to investor Kulveer Taggar, founder of proptech startup Zeus Living, "Meeting transcriptions are commonplace now, but Circleback's value lies in the way it collates notes, actions items, and next steps. When I saw meeting notes after using the tool, it felt like there was a human editor at play who curated key points."

Circleback has also introduced a feature called automation, which extracts certain insights from every meeting based on user prompts. This allows users to type in specific information they want to extract from each meeting, such as customer details, and add it to a Notion database or CRM. The company plans to expand this feature by allowing users to create and share templates for automation with the community.

Despite being cashflow positive, Circleback chose not to raise more money to avoid diluting the founders' stake. The company has grown organically, with thousands of paying customers using its product. Haghani believes that Circleback can find a good product-market fit, citing the conversational data as a "gold mine" that can provide significant value without integrating external tools.

Looking ahead, Circleback plans to release iOS and Android apps to capture in-person conversations, further expanding its capabilities. With its unique approach to meeting transcription and insights, Circleback is well-positioned to capitalize on the growing demand for AI-powered productivity tools.