Modulate raises $25 million led by Future Ventures to expand deepfake detection
In brief
- Modulate closed a $25 million round led by Future Ventures, Crypto Briefing reported.
- Hyperplane and Lakestar also participated; the report put total funding at $60 million.
- Modulate's Velma platform runs more than 100 specialized models on raw audio.
- Modulate says its deepfake detection is 98.9% accurate with a 1.1% equal error rate.
The round and the backers
Future Ventures (the firm co-founded by Steve Jurvetson) led the $25 million round, per Crypto Briefing's report on the company's announcement. Hyperplane and Lakestar came in alongside it.
Crypto Briefing put Modulate's total funding at $60 million and said the company had previously raised $41 million at a valuation of roughly $170 million. The report didn't explain why those figures don't add up with a $25 million round.
What Velma does, according to Modulate
Velma is the core of the business. It's an audio-native AI platform that uses more than 100 specialized models to analyze raw audio for emotion, tone, intent and whether a voice is synthetic. It handles both real-time and batch processing, and the use cases Modulate lists include call centers, healthcare services, gaming platforms and social media.
The performance numbers come from the company itself. Modulate claims Velma delivers up to 2x the accuracy and 7x fewer false positives than traditional large language models applied to audio tasks.
On deepfakes specifically, Modulate claims 98.9% accuracy with a 1.1% equal error rate.
Crypto Briefing also reported that Modulate ranked first on the Hugging Face Open ASR Leaderboard for transcription as of mid-2026. On volume, the report said the company processes more than 10 million hours of audio a month (and over 600 million hours lifetime). Pricing is published, too: the deepfake detection API runs $0.25 per hour of audio analyzed, while batch transcription costs $0.03 per hour.
From voice skins to compliance
Modulate isn't new. Carter Huffman and Mike Pappas, both MIT graduates, co-founded it in 2017, and the first product wasn't detection at all. It was real-time voice modulation (voice skins, essentially).
The company built its reputation in gaming and social platform moderation before it moved into financial services, healthcare and enterprise compliance. That's the market the new funding is meant to push further into, with deepfake detection and audio analysis as the stated focus of the expansion.
Frequently asked questions
What is Modulate's Velma platform?
Velma is Modulate's core product, an audio-native AI platform. It uses more than 100 specialized models to analyze raw audio for emotion, tone, intent and whether a voice is synthetic, and it supports both real-time and batch processing.
Who invested in Modulate's $25 million round?
Crypto Briefing reported that Future Ventures, the firm co-founded by Steve Jurvetson, led the round, with Hyperplane and Lakestar also participating. The report put Modulate's total funding at $60 million.
How much does Modulate's deepfake detection API cost?
According to the report, Modulate's deepfake detection API is priced at $0.25 per hour of audio analyzed. Its batch transcription API costs $0.03 per hour.
