Ambient artificial intelligence is gaining traction, with Amazon unveiling a new wrist‑worn device, a former Plaud executive rolling out ambient apps through the startup Ambi, and Apple introducing Voice Intelligence features during its September iPhone event. In this wave, Nirva is betting on a jewelry‑style pendant that is designed to hear only the wearer. The company announced a $25 million pre‑Series A round today, adding to the $8 million it raised earlier in the year from investors such as Lightspeed and South Park Commons, bringing total funding to $33 million.
Founded in 2025 by former Meta Reality Labs engineers Wei Lyu and Jason Chen, along with fashion and jewelry entrepreneur Hanying Hu, Nirva’s first product is a pendant that can also be worn as a bracelet. Weighing roughly eight grams, the device is light enough for all‑day wear and its battery can last up to three days on a single charge. The startup plans to expand its hardware lineup over time.
In a conversation with TechCrunch, CEO Wei Lyu explained that the goal was to create a wearable that blends seamlessly with fashion while delivering real value. “This is a piece of jewelry that only focuses on listening to your own speech,” Lyu said. “We are not like a voice recorder or 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. It’s always on. It keeps modeling the user and modeling your mind.”
Privacy concerns have long haunted ambient devices, especially after products like Ray‑Ban Meta sparked worries that bystanders might be recorded without consent. Nirva addresses this by having users record short voice snippets during onboarding; the model is built from that data alone. During everyday use, the pendant filters out any conversation that does not originate from the wearer, ensuring that only the owner’s voice is captured. By default, the company does not retain any audio or transcripts after processing.
Nirva positions itself as a personal‑insights platform rather than a pure productivity tool. Its companion app surfaces reminders, action items and suggestions based on the wearer’s speech. Lyu said the aim is to help people show up better for others and to foster self‑understanding, self‑compassion and self‑awareness. The app analyzes speech to infer personality traits, recurring patterns, frequent contacts, visited locations and daily notes. It also tracks tone, pitch, volume and speaking speed to derive emotional cues, which are then presented to the user.
Lyu shared a personal example: after forgetting to thank her mother, the app later nudged her with a reminder. The pendant, priced at $249, will be offered in silver, brushed silver, black and gold. Orders open in November, with shipments to early adopters expected by year‑end.
Nirva faces competition from other AI‑wearable ventures such as Taya, founded by former Apple staff, and startups like Friend and Bee that are also developing companion gadgets.
Ivan Mehta contributed reporting for TechCrunch.