Former Plaud Executive Raises $26 Million for an AI App That Listens Continuously
Startup Ambi, founded by former Plaud executive Peter Mo, has raised $26 million. Its apps can listen to users throughout the day and offer suggestions during meetings, which raises privacy questions.
Ambi, a startup founded by former Plaud (a maker of meeting-recording devices) executive Peter Mo, announced on Monday that it has raised $26 million across several funding rounds. Ambi is building an AI app that listens to users continuously in order to offer real-time suggestions and insights. It joins a wider trend of tech companies trying to gather as much context as possible about people, despite concerns over privacy and data security.
The rounds were led by Luminous Ventures, an investor that has backed companies such as Meituan and Unitree Robotics, and by Original Design Manufacturer (ODM) Huaqin.
What the apps offer
Ambi is releasing apps for iPhone, Mac and Apple Watch. They work as meeting note-takers, but users can choose to let them listen all day to capture context. Many competitors automate tasks only after a call ends; Ambi's agent starts working during the meeting itself. It can proactively offer suggestions or surface relevant knowledge based on the user's calendar, meetings, knowledge base and web data. A task can be started on one device and continued on another.
Mo noted that with hardware such as Plaud, a recording must be transferred to a phone and uploaded to the cloud before results arrive. Ambi is meant to let people use AI anytime and anywhere.
The company also plans a desktop app that will observe users' work and store important parts in memory, as well as its own device with a screen, speaker, camera and microphones.
Privacy questions
It is unclear whether Ambi's apps or its future device will have enough indicators to alert other people that they are being recorded if the user does not say so. Some meeting note-taking services have already been sued over recording conversations without consent. Mo said ambient capture can be switched off at any time and is off by default. The company says it stores no recordings and encrypts data, but did not specify the type of encryption. The responsibility to disclose recording still rests with users, and Mo described the issue as an industry-wide problem.
Ambi has more than 50 employees in San Francisco, Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.
