The Pulse
Nirva raises $33 million in total funding for always-on AI pendant
Nirva’s $25 million pre-Series A round brings the wearable startup’s total funding to $33 million. Its pendant listens for the wearer’s speech and pairs with an app that turns everyday conversations into reminders and personal insights.
AI.info Team · Written with AI · fact-checked ·
Nirva is building a wearable that listens throughout the day while promising to filter out everyone but its wearer. TechCrunch reported on October 22 that the company had announced a $25 million pre-Series A round, putting that privacy claim alongside a product designed to keep its microphones active and interpret the wearer’s speech as a personal journal and source of insights.
The new financing brings Nirva’s total funding to $33 million, including $8 million raised earlier in 2026 from investors including Lightspeed and South Park Commons. TechCrunch reports that the company will begin taking orders in November, with early shipments targeted by year’s end. Its pendant is priced at $249.
Nirva’s pendant listens continuously
The first device can be worn as a pendant or bracelet. It weighs about eight grams and has a battery life of up to three days on a charge, according to TechCrunch. Nirva was founded in 2025 by Wei Lyu and Jason Chen, both former Meta Reality Labs employees, and Hanying Hu, who founded a fashion and jewelry brand.
In a call with TechCrunch, Nirva CEO Lyu described the product as jewelry rather than a meeting recorder. “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.
“I think there’s no universal way to help everyone to solve their problems. We are building a tool to help people to improve their self-understanding, self-compassion, and self-awareness,” Lyu said.
Wei Lyu, CEO of Nirva, to TechCrunch
The privacy promise depends on voice filtering
TechCrunch reports that users record short voice samples during setup so the device can build a model of their speech. The report says the system filters out conversations and other audio from people nearby while it is in use. It also reports that Nirva does not retain audio or transcripts after processing by default.
Those safeguards are central to the product’s pitch: an always-listening device in public and social settings could capture other people’s conversations as well as its owner’s. The TechCrunch report does not detail how Nirva tests the voice filtering, how reliably it separates speakers, or what processing steps occur before audio is discarded. The report describes the device’s intended behavior, not independent validation of that performance.
An insight app, not just a recorder
TechCrunch describes Nirva as positioning itself as a personal-insights company rather than a productivity startup. Its app can surface reminders and action items. Lyu said the company wants the app to help users show up for others in a better way in their lives.
That distinction also sets a high bar for the software: Nirva is asking customers to trust its interpretations of their speech and relationships, not simply its ability to capture notes. TechCrunch reported that Lyu gave an example of forgetting to thank her mother, after which the app prompted her with a reminder. The report does not describe how the app checks whether its emotional or personality inferences are accurate.
Orders begin in November
TechCrunch reports that Nirva plans to offer the $249 device in silver, brushed silver, black, and gold, with orders opening in November and initial shipments targeted for the end of 2026. The company’s stated ambition extends beyond this first pendant: it says it wants to develop additional devices over time.
For now, Nirva’s next concrete test is whether customers will wear an always-listening pendant—and accept its voice-filtering and data-retention assurances—in exchange for an app that turns everyday speech into personal guidance.