Listen Labs Series B Funding: $69M to Kill the Traditional Survey

A $5,000 billboard just turned into a $69 million windfall. What started as a cryptic recruitment stunt in San Francisco has propelled Listen Labs to the forefront of the $140 billion market research industry. They're not just digitizing surveys; they're automating the human conversation at scale.

Listen Labs Series B Funding and the $500M Valuation

Listen Labs secured $69 million in Series B funding led by Ribbit Capital. This round values the company at $500 million and brings its total capital to $100 million. Since its launch nine months ago, the startup has grown its annualized revenue by 15x and conducted over one million AI-powered interviews, according to VentureBeat.

The platform solves a fundamental trade-off: quantitative surveys provide scale but lack depth, while qualitative interviews provide depth but can't scale. By using an AI moderator to conduct open-ended video conversations, Listen Labs provides actionable insights in hours rather than the weeks required by traditional firms.

Eliminating Fraud in Global Research

Founder Alfred Wahlforss identified rampant fraud as the industry's dirty secret. To combat this, Listen Labs built a 'quality guard' that cross-references LinkedIn profiles and analyzes video responses for consistency. The results are stark: Emeritus, an online education provider, saw fraudulent responses drop from 20% to nearly zero after switching to the AI-led platform.

High-profile clients like Microsoft and Sweetgreen are already seeing the benefits of speed. Microsoft's Copilot team used Listen to collect global customer stories in a single day, a task that typically takes six to eight weeks. As Wahlforss puts it, 'Slow is fake.' In the AI era, the companies that listen fastest will likely be the ones that win.