Sesame, an artificial intelligence startup founded by key members of the original Oculus team, has secured $250 million in a Series B funding round. The company is developing a conversational AI agent designed to be integrated into lightweight smart glasses, and it announced the opening of an early beta for its iOS application on Tuesday.
The funding round, led by prominent investors including Sequoia and Spark, signals significant confidence in the company's vision to create a personal AI that interacts with users through a natural-sounding human voice. The startup is led by former Oculus co-founder and CEO Brendan Iribe and Ankit Kumar, who previously served as CTO at augmented reality firm Ubiquity6.
Key Takeaways
- AI startup Sesame has closed a $250 million Series B funding round.
- The company is building a conversational AI companion for smart glasses.
- The founding team includes several high-profile executives from Oculus and Meta.
- A limited beta for the Sesame iOS app is now available for early testers.
A Vision for Conversational AI
Sesame aims to create an AI agent that can be worn throughout the day, providing assistance and companionship through voice interactions. The core of its technology is an AI that doesn't just convert text to audio but generates speech directly, capturing the nuances of human dialogue.
The company first demonstrated its technology in February with two AI voices named “Maya” and “Miles.” The demos quickly gained public attention, attracting over a million users who engaged in more than 5 million minutes of conversation within the first few weeks of release. This initial success highlighted the public's interest in more natural and expressive AI interactions.
The Technology Behind the Voice
Unlike many text-to-speech systems that can sound robotic, Sesame's technology is engineered to generate speech that includes the rhythm, emotion, and expressiveness found in real human conversation. This approach is central to its goal of creating an AI that feels like a genuine companion rather than just a digital assistant.
Investor Sequoia noted that the experience was fundamentally different from existing technologies. The firm described Sesame's conversational layer as something that moves beyond simple audio output, creating a more engaging and lifelike dialogue. Early media impressions of the demo were also positive, with some describing the interaction as both natural-sounding and enjoyable.
The Team and Hardware Ambitions
The strength of Sesame's founding team is a significant factor in its ability to attract substantial investment. Beyond Iribe and Kumar, the leadership includes other Oculus alumni who were instrumental in the development of the Rift VR headset.
An All-Star Roster
The executive team features Oculus co-founder Nate Mitchell as Chief Product Officer, former Oculus COO Hans Hartmann as Chief Operating Officer, and former Oculus engineering manager Ryan Brown. The team is rounded out by longtime Meta executive Angela Gayles, bringing a wealth of experience in hardware development and scaling technology products.
This collective expertise is crucial as Sesame plans to embed its AI into its own hardware: a pair of smart glasses. The company has stated its intention to create eyewear that is fashion-forward and desirable on its own, independent of the built-in technology. The goal is to design a device people would choose to wear for its style, making the AI integration a seamless part of their daily life.
However, the company has not yet provided a timeline for the release of its smart glasses. Building and manufacturing hardware is a complex process, and the team appears to be taking a deliberate approach to development.
Beta Access and Future Development
While the hardware remains under wraps, Sesame is moving forward with the software side of its product. Brendan Iribe announced via the social media platform X that an early beta of the Sesame iOS app is now open. This will give a select group of testers a firsthand experience with the AI's capabilities.
The app experience will allow testers to get hands-on with the AI technology being built, as the app will have the ability to “search, text and think,” according to Iribe's announcement.
Participants in the beta program are required to maintain confidentiality and are not permitted to discuss features or their experiences outside of official testing forums. This controlled rollout allows the company to gather valuable user feedback while continuing to refine its AI models before a wider public release.
The $250 million in new funding will be instrumental in fueling both the software development for the app and the long-term, capital-intensive process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing the smart glasses. With a veteran team and substantial financial backing, Sesame is positioned to become a significant new player in the race to define the future of personal AI and wearable technology.