Gradium raises $100 million seed round with Nvidia as new investor

In short: Paris-based voice AI startup Gradium says it has raised $100 million in a seed round that now includes Nvidia.

What happened

Gradium, a startup based in Paris, said it reopened its seed funding round to add new investors. The company says the round now totals $100 million, and Nvidia is among the new backers.

A seed round is the early money many startups raise to build their product and hire staff. Reopening that round is like going back to the same tip jar and letting more people contribute after the first wave.

Gradium says it will use the money to open an office in the San Francisco Bay Area. It also plans to hire there, aiming to be closer to major AI companies such as Google, Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic.

Gradium works on “voice AI models,” which are systems that can generate and respond with human-like speech. The company says it is focused on ultra-low latency, meaning the voice answers almost instantly, without the pause many people notice in voice assistants.

The company launched publicly in December after raising $70 million from investors including FirstMark Capital, Eurazeo, DST Global Partners, Eric Schmidt, and Xavier Niel. Gradium was spun out of Kyutai, a French AI research lab co-founded by Neil Zeghidour, who previously worked at Google Brain, DeepMind, and Facebook.

Why it matters

More natural, fast AI voices can change how people interact with customer support, cars, and other services that talk back. Gradium also faces heavy competition from companies like ElevenLabs and voice features from large tech firms, so this funding and Nvidia’s involvement suggests investors expect strong demand for better AI speech.

Source: TechCrunch AI