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

Ambient AI is having a moment. Amazon launched a new wrist-worn device with Bee; a former Plaud exec launched ambient apps through a startup called Ambi, which aims to also build its own hardware; and Apple launched Voice Intelligence features during its iPhone launch in September. Now, a company called Nirva is betting on a jewelry-like pendant and its ability to listen only to the wearer.

The startup today announced a new $25 million pre-Series A round, adding to the $8 million it raised earlier in the year from investors like Lightspeed and South Park Commons, bringing its total raise to $33 million.

Nirva was founded in 2025 by two former Meta Reality Labs employees, Wei Lyu and Jason Chen, along with Hanying Hu, who founded a fashion and jewelry brand.

The company’s first device is a pendant, which can also be worn as a bracelet. The device weighs only around eight grams, making it easy to wear all day. Its battery lasts up to three days on a single charge.

Longer term, Nirva aims to release more devices.

In a call with TechCrunch, Nirva CEO Lyu said that the company wanted to build a wearable that blends in with fashion, but also provides value to users.

“This is a piece of jewelry that only focuses on listening to your own speech. We are not like a voice recorder or like a meeting note taker. One key difference between us, Taya, Vocci, or Sandbar Ring is that we’re always passively listening to your own speech. So it’s always on. It keeps modeling the user and modeling your mind,” Lyu said.

For ambient devices, privacy is a big question, as people might not like to be recorded all the time. Plus, devices like the Ray-Ban Meta have instilled fear in those who are around the person wearing the smart glasses that they are being recorded too.

In addition, Nirva by default doesn’t keep any audio data or transcripts after processing the conversations.

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