London-based notetaking startup Goodnotes mentioned at this time it’s buying South Korean startup Dropthebit, which operates a gathering and video abstract software referred to as Traw. With the acquisition, Goodnotes is seeking to transfer past lecture rooms and discover making productiveness instruments for professionals.

As a part of the deal, all three co-founders of Dropthebit will transfer to Goodnotes. Plus, Traw mentioned on its web site that its software is shutting down in February however will permit current clients to export their knowledge.

Dropthebit, which was based in 2020 and had raised $1 million to this point, began out by launching a whiteboard resolution in 2022. The software recorded the actions on the whiteboard throughout a lecture or a gathering. Plus, it summarized the assembly right into a doc for later consumption. Final yr, Traw dropped the whiteboard performance, centered on assembly summarization, and added an AI-powered software to summarize and manage YouTube movies.

Goodnotes founder Steven Chan informed TechCrunch that Dropthebit was seeking to increase its Collection A funding. And whereas Goodnotes thought-about each funding and acquisition, it lastly selected latter.

“Even earlier than we met Dropthebit via a mutual investor connection, we have been very impressed by their work. Their multimodality was one thing we have been enthusiastic about and noticed it nearly as good synergy with Goodnotes,” Chan mentioned.

Goodnotes, which has over 24 million month-to-month energetic customers, has centered on offering a digital notebook-like resolution for college students through the years — beginning with an iPad app in 2011. In August 2023, the startup launched Goodnotes 6 with a digital market for planners, and subject-specific revision notes. Plus, it launched paid training modules for college students together with SAT Math observe programs and English and Chinese language programs for the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Schooling Examination (HKDSE).

With its newest acquisition, Goodnotes goals to maneuver into the productiveness sector catering to professionals. Chan mentioned Traw’s characteristic equivalent to analyzing movies and placing them into an Excel sheet may very well be helpful for skilled segments equivalent to traders and market researchers as the corporate appears to maneuver past the training sector.

“We have already got an audio recording in Goodnotes, however with Traw’s integration, we’ll look in the direction of transcription enterprise and later we’ll additionally combine assist YouTube or (an organization’s) inside movies. Individually, we’re additionally constructing LLM (Giant Language Mannequin)–based mostly options so customers can ask questions concerning the notes or conferences,” Chan mentioned.

Goodnotes mentioned it plans to be a “paperless digital pocket book” for professionals by making an attempt to assist them get extra insights from conferences and paperwork. Presently, Goodnotes is extra centered on stylus-based handwritten notes. The startup mentioned it’s already bettering its typing expertise throughout the board to make it appropriate for various types of notetaking.

Aside from buying Dropthebit, in September 2023, the note-taking firm invested $1.9 million in Korea-based digital stationary startup WeBudding. Nonetheless, Goodnotes, which received a $6 million seed funding from Race Capital in 2020, shouldn’t be seeking to increase one other spherical.

“I really feel like we’re very cost-efficient. So for now, we don’t have any fundraising plans. We like the pliability of specializing in the person expertise and constructing the product. So we plan to maintain it that means within the foreseeable future,” Chan mentioned.

Alfred S. Chuang, the final associate at Race Capital, mentioned he’s enthusiastic about Goodnotes’ transfer into the productiveness area.

“I’m enthusiastic about this acquisition for Goodnotes. The Traw workforce is tremendous gifted with some nice AI/engineering chops. They may construct AI-powered audio recording and display recording capabilities in Goodnotes,” Chuang informed TechCrunch over e-mail.

“Goodnotes’ growth into new use circumstances that combine Goodnotes into completely different enterprise workflows is sensible to me. Their problem is that they must proceed their progress with out sacrificing person expertise.”