Ambi, a startup founded by former Plaud executive Peter Mo, has raised $26 million to develop an AI assistant that can listen for context and offer timely help. The funding came through multiple rounds led by Luminous Ventures and Huaqin.
The company has launched apps for iPhone, Mac and Apple Watch. Alongside taking meeting notes, Ambi aims to provide suggestions during conversations, drawing on information such as users' calendars, meetings, knowledge bases and web data. Tasks can also be started on one device and continued on another.
Ambi plans to extend the service with a desktop app that can learn from users' work activity and a dedicated device featuring a screen, speaker, camera and microphones.
Controls for ambient listening
Ambient capture is optional and switched off by default, according to the company. Ambi says users can disable it at any time, that recordings are not stored and that data is encrypted. Users are responsible for informing others when ambient capture is active.
With more than 50 employees across San Francisco, Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, Ambi is also recruiting AI engineers focused on speech recognition.
If it can pair useful, real-time assistance with clear user controls, Ambi could help shape a future where AI support moves beyond screens and fits more naturally into everyday work.
