Ambi raises $26M for AI apps that can listen in the background

In short: Ambi, a startup led by former Plaud executive Peter Mo, says it raised $26 million to build apps that can listen in the background and help during meetings.

What happened

Ambi says it raised $26 million across multiple funding rounds. The rounds were led by Luminous Ventures, with backing also mentioned from ODM Huaqin, according to TechCrunch.

The company is releasing apps for iPhone, Mac, and Apple Watch. Ambi describes them as tools that can act like meeting note-takers, but with an option for “ambient capture,” meaning the apps can keep listening so they can pick up context throughout the day.

Ambi says its goal is to help in real time, not just after a call ends. For example, it says its AI agent can surface relevant information during a meeting based on things like your calendar, notes, and web data. The company also said people can start a task on one device and continue it on another.

Ambi is also planning its own hardware device with a screen, speaker, camera, and microphones. It says the desktop app it is working on could also look at what users do on their computer and save important parts to its “memory” (like a personal notebook the app keeps for you).

Why it matters

Tools that listen in the background can be useful, but they raise obvious privacy concerns. Ambi says ambient capture is off by default, users can turn it off at any time, and it does not store recordings, and it encrypts data (scrambles it so outsiders cannot easily read it). Still, other people near the user may not know they are being recorded, and similar note-taking tools have faced lawsuits over consent.

Source: TechCrunch AI