Nirva raises $33M for a pendant that listens only to its wearer

In short: Nirva has raised a total of $33 million to build a $249 wearable pendant that is designed to listen only to the person wearing it.

What happened

Nirva, a startup founded in 2025, said it raised $25 million in a new funding round. That adds to $8 million it raised earlier this year, bringing its total funding to $33 million. The founders include two former Meta Reality Labs employees, Wei Lyu and Jason Chen, plus Hanying Hu, who previously built a fashion and jewelry brand.

The company’s first product is a small pendant that can also be worn as a bracelet. Nirva says it weighs about eight grams and can last up to three days on a single charge. The device is expected to cost $249 and come in silver, brushed silver, black, and gold.

Nirva says the pendant is always listening, but only to the wearer’s voice. It does this by having the user record short samples of their voice during setup, then using that to filter out other people nearby (like a bouncer who only lets one guest into a club). The company also says it does not keep audio or written transcripts after it processes them.

Nirva plans to start taking orders in November and aims to ship to early users by the end of the year.

Why it matters

Wearables that listen in the background raise obvious privacy concerns, especially for people around the wearer. Nirva is betting that voice filtering and not storing recordings will make people more comfortable with an always-on device, while still giving useful reminders and insights about mood and communication.

Source: TechCrunch AI