Pinch

What do they actually do

Pinch provides real-time voice translation that works two ways: a browser-based meeting product with built-in translation/captions and developer-facing streaming APIs for speech-to-speech and speech-to-text. They advertise low-latency streaming and support “50+ languages” on the site, with a detailed language list in the developer docs homepage, developers.

For end users, Pinch offers a Web Meeting experience where an AI interpreter can join calls, and a Mac desktop app (public beta) that acts as a virtual microphone/speaker so translation works inside Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, WhatsApp and other apps. Users can hear translated audio, view subtitles, and choose to speak translated audio live into the meeting homepage, LinkedIn, desktop post.

Who are their target customer(s)

• Global product/engineering and leadership teams at multinationals: Meetings drag due to language gaps; arranging human interpreters is slow and expensive, and ad‑hoc translation causes rework and misunderstandings homepage, developers.
• Virtual event and conference organizers: They need simultaneous translation for large audiences and currently juggle interpreter marketplaces, extra audio channels, and separate captioning vendors homepage, YC profile.
• Customer support and sales teams serving multilingual customers: Agents lose time or deals when language barriers force handoffs or limited-hours interpreter usage; auto-translation quality and latency are inconsistent developers, LinkedIn.
• Developers building collaboration, telephony, or event platforms: They need reliable, low-latency streaming translation with consistent quality and straightforward integration, which current options make complex developers.
• Individual remote workers/consultants (Mac users) in mixed-language calls: It’s hard to follow and contribute across languages without switching tools; they want translation that works inside the meeting apps they already use LinkedIn, homepage.

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Convert active beta users and YC-introduced pilots into paying design partners by offering hands-on onboarding, measuring latency/accuracy, and producing 1–2 short case studies to prove ROI LinkedIn, developers, YC profile.
• First 50: Run targeted outbound and demo-only webinars for multinational teams, event organizers, and support leaders, offering 30–60 day paid pilots with clear success criteria; publish integration playbooks to shorten evaluations homepage, developers.
• First 100: Open self-serve API access with clear pricing, ship simple SDKs/sample apps, and list on relevant marketplaces or partner with conferencing/event and CCaaS platforms; add customer success to convert pilots and reduce churn developers, homepage, LinkedIn.

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

The broader serviceable space spans virtual events, unified communications/collaboration, contact centers, and language services—markets that together total in the low hundreds of billions globally, though headline figures overlap and shouldn’t be summed directly Grand View Research, IDC, Fortune Business Insights, language services.

Bottom-up calculation:

Immediate, direct TAM is roughly $4B from replacing simultaneous interpretation services (~$3.6B in 2024) plus the specialized speech‑to‑speech market (~$0.62B in 2025) simultaneous interpretation, Mordor Intelligence.

Assumptions:

• AI can substitute for a meaningful share of simultaneous interpretation spend in meetings/events within 1–3 years.
• Speech-to-speech estimates reflect enterprise-grade use cases, not only consumer apps.
• Overlaps across adjacent markets are not double-counted in the top-down framing.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Microsoft (Azure Speech / Teams Interpreter): Developer APIs for real-time speech translation and a native Teams interpreter experience; strong enterprise distribution via Microsoft 365/Teams Azure Speech, Teams Interpreter.
• Google (Meet + Cloud Speech/Translation): Offers meeting-level translation in Google Meet and cloud APIs (Speech-to-Text, Translation, TTS) for building streaming translation Meet help, Cloud Speech, Cloud Translation.
• KUDO: Enterprise events and meetings platform combining a marketplace of human interpreters with AI speech translation; deep integrations and white-glove event support KUDO, KUDO AI Speech Translator.
• Interprefy: Remote simultaneous interpretation for events/webinars with both professional interpreters and AI translation, plus broad event-platform integrations RSI, AI speech translator.
• Wordly: AI-only live translation for meetings and hybrid events (audio, captions, transcripts) with Zoom/Teams/event integrations; positioned for quick, cost-effective deployments product, pricing.