Sesame, an innovative startup specializing in conversational AI and smart glasses, has successfully raised $250 million in a Series B funding round. The company exploded onto the scene back in February after coming out of stealth. Now, it’s returning with a vengeance, most recently for its fashion-forward smart glasses, Sesame, and ground-breaking AI voice technology created to enhance user experience.
The funding round got big name investors to the table, those being Sequoia and Spark. Brendan Iribe, another founder of Sesame and luminary of the extended Baltimore tech community, shared news of the successful funding. He announced the appointment on his X (formerly Twitter) account. This transformational funding will allow Sesame to scale its business and enhance its innovative, proprietary technology.
In February, Sesame brought both a vibrant prototype and powerful demonstrations of its technology to an enthralled ICAD 2019 audience. In fact, within weeks of launching, over a million people interacted with Sesame’s new AI voices, called Maya and Miles. These interactions led to more than five million minutes of connected talk time, a clear sign of the increasing appetite for what the company has to offer.
Sesame’s creative method for AI voice generation gives it an advantage over the competition. It’s not just lypsync—this technology goes beyond simply converting LLM-generated dialog into speech. Instead, it synthesizes speech in an end-to-end manner, learning how to replicate the rhythm, emotion, and expressiveness of actual human speech.
“It doesn’t just translate LLM output into audio—it generates speech directly, capturing the rhythm, emotion, and expressiveness of real dialogue.” – Sequoia
Initial reviews of Sesame’s technology have been glowing, with users calling the interaction, “truly enjoyable” and “natural-sounding.” This feedback shows the incredible promise that Sesame’s smart glasses hold. They can exist organically within the rhythm of everyday life and provide a delightful user experience.
Aligned with its mission to keep growing, Sesame is now working to open sesame to more users through a closed beta program to a limited group of testers. By pursuing this kind of limited launch through the initiative, the company will have the opportunity to incorporate user feedback and improve the product before wider deployment.
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