Mistlabs’ Ambi raises $26M and exits beta on Apple devices

SiliconANGLE reported that the Pre-A round was led by Luminous Ventures and Huaqin Technology Co. Ltd. TechCrunch AI said the $26 million was raised across multiple funding rounds led by Luminous Ventures, which has backed Meituan and Unitree Robotics, and original design manufacturer Huaqin. Huaqin, based in Shanghai, designs and manufactures smart devices for other brands, according to SiliconANGLE.

Ambi is releasing apps for iPhones, Macs and Apple Watch, TechCrunch AI reported. The apps act like meeting note-takers, but users can choose to have them listen so they can capture context all day. SiliconANGLE reported that Ambi is available now on Macs and on Apple devices that support iOS 18, with audio storage switched off by default. The app is designed to act without being asked, CEO Peter Mo said, and can sometimes take action before the user thinks to ask.

Ambi’s agent can proactively give suggestions or surface relevant knowledge during a meeting based on a user’s calendar, meetings, knowledge base and web data, according to TechCrunch AI. Users can start a task on one device and continue it on another. SiliconANGLE reported that a user can set up a Routine, which hands a recurring job to several agents at once. In an example the company gave, agents fact-check a discussion about competitors as it unfolds and may draft a proposal on the user’s MacBook before anyone leaves the room. The agents keep working after the meeting, flagging missing information or new developments.

Further out, Mistlabs wants Ambi agents to negotiate with each other, SiliconANGLE reported. The capability is due in the coming months and would be used when two people using the software sit in the same meeting. Each agent would draw on what it knows about its own user, and together they would work out where priorities overlap and where sticking points are likely. Users set the permissions that govern what their agent can do. Ambi’s upcoming desktop app will be able to look at the work users do and store important parts in its memory to give more personalized suggestions, TechCrunch AI reported. The startup also plans to launch its own hardware device with a screen, a speaker, a camera and microphones to capture context and display information.

Mo told TechCrunch AI that the way people interact with intelligence is limited. “Often the intelligence is trapped on the screen, and if you use hardware like Plaud, you need to wait for recording to transfer to the phone, upload to the cloud, and get intelligence after processing. That’s why we are building Ambi to use AI anytime and anywhere,” he said.

The launch comes as concerns grow around AI devices that lack enough indicators to show they are capturing data on people around the user, TechCrunch AI reported. It is not clear whether Ambi’s apps or its upcoming device will have enough indicators to alert third parties that their conversations are being recorded if the user does not disclose the use of Ambi’s technology. Some meeting note-takers have been sued over recording people’s conversations and data without consent, and Apple’s recent Voice Intelligence feature, which transcribes speech continuously, has raised privacy concerns.

Mo said users can turn off ambient data capture on Ambi’s apps and devices at any time, and the feature is off by default. The startup said it does not store recordings of users and encrypts data, but it did not specify what kind of encryption it uses. The responsibility for declaring ambient capture still falls on users. “We have to inform our users that they have to tell others about ambient capture. We, as an industry, haven’t solved this problem,” Mo told TechCrunch AI. He called it an industry-wide problem.

Ambi currently has more than 50 staff across offices in San Francisco, Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, TechCrunch AI reported. The company is hiring for its go-to-market function and AI engineers to work on speech recognition models. The $26 million raised ahead of the launch will pay for a standalone wearable Mistlabs is building to give Ambi more context about users and their surroundings, SiliconANGLE reported. Mo said hardware will let the system extend to entirely new device types over time. People interested in the wearable can join a waitlist, and the device is expected later this year.