# Cuckoo

> Cuckoo is a real-time AI interpreter built for global business conversations. Companies invite Cuckoo into Zoom calls or in-person meetings, and it delivers live translation across 20+ languages while learning each team's internal documents, glossaries, and jargon so technical sales, support, and marketing conversations don't lose meaning between languages. Founded in 2024 by KAIST alumni Yong Hee Lee and Gunwoo Kim, the company went through Y Combinator's Winter 2025 batch and raised a $1.8M seed round in 2025.

- **Founded:** 2024
- **Headquarters:** San Francisco, California, United States
- **Founders:** Yong Hee Lee (Co-founder & CEO), Gunwoo Kim (Co-founder & CTO)
- **Team size:** 3
- **Products:** Cuckoo Real-time AI Interpreter, Document & Glossary Context Learning, Adaptive Accuracy
- **Notable:** Graduated Y Combinator Winter 2025 batch., Raised $1.8M seed round in 2025., Signed global enterprise users including Snowflake, PagerDuty, and Weights & Biases within roughly six months of launch.

## Products & services

- **Cuckoo Real-time AI Interpreter** — Live AI interpretation for online meetings (Zoom and similar) and in-person conversations across 20+ languages, delivering translation as the conversation happens.
- **Document & Glossary Context Learning** — Users upload pitch decks, API documentation, user manuals, and glossaries so Cuckoo understands domain-specific terminology and preserves technical nuance.
- **Adaptive Accuracy** — Cuckoo improves over repeated meetings with the same team or customer, learning terminology, context, and speech patterns to raise translation quality over time.

## Achievements

- Graduated Y Combinator Winter 2025 batch.
- Raised $1.8M seed round in 2025.
- Signed global enterprise users including Snowflake, PagerDuty, and Weights & Biases within roughly six months of launch.
- Supports real-time interpretation across 20+ languages.

## Latest updates

- **2025-11** — Announced $1.8M seed round led by Y Combinator with Smilegate Investment, Mashup Ventures, Base Ventures, Schmidt, and BonAngels Venture Partners.
- **2025-03** — Launched publicly on Hacker News and YC as a real-time AI translator for global sales, marketing, and support during the YC W25 batch.

## Links

- Website: https://cuckoo.so
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cuckoo-labs

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/cuckoo-yc-w25
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-31