Conversational AI startup and smart glasses maker Sesame has raised a $250 million Series B round and is opening its beta to a select group of testers, the company announced Tuesday.
Startup led by former Oculus co-founder and CEO Brandon Iribe And Ankit KumarThe former CTO of AR startup Ubiquity6 is working to create a personal AI agent that interacts with users using a natural-sounding human voice. The company plans to embed personal AI agents into lightweight eyewear, designed to be worn all day and with which users can interact via voice.
first startup emerged quietly In February, when it introduced two demos of its technology – AI voices named “Maya” and “Miles”. According to a new study, Voices was soon accessed by more than a million people within the first few weeks, logging more than five million minutes of conversation. Post Sesame Investors about its participation in the startup’s Series B led by Sequoia.
The post said, “…this experience was different from anything we’ve used before. Sesame’s layer of interaction felt different.” “It doesn’t just translate LLM output to audio – it generates speech directly, capturing the rhythm, emotion and expression of real dialogue.”
Early reviews of the tech demo seem to agree, according to a report The Verge Described the mole as “really fun” and “natural-sounding”.
Sesame says its upcoming glasses will offer “high-quality audio” and access to an AI companion that will “observe the world alongside you.”
Sequoia also said that the smartglasses that Sesame is building will be fashion-forward, so they’ll look like something you’ll want to wear, even if they don’t offer built-in AI technology. No timeframe for their availability is being shared yet; As Sequoia said, “Hardware takes time.”
On that front, Sesame may have an advantage. Its founding team also includes the co-founders of Oculus Nate Mitchell as its chief product officer, former Oculus COO and Fitbit executive Hans Hartmann as COO, as well as former Oculus engineer manager and Reality Labs engineering director Ryan Brown, and longer Facebook and Meta execution Angela Giles,
In addition to sharing the news of its Series B, Iribe announced On X that Sesame is now opening the early beta of the Sesame iOS app. He says the app experience will allow testers to become familiar with the AI technology being created, as the app will have the ability to “search, text, and think.”
Beta testers are asked to keep their testing experience confidential For the time being, that includes not discussing features or results beyond the official beta testing forums.
Investors in Sesame Series B include Sequoia, Spark and other undisclosed names, According To Iribe.
