Ambi raises $26M and exits beta on Apple devices with always-listening AI assistant
Ambi, the ambient AI app from Mistlabs founded by former Plaud executive Peter Mo, said it raised $26 million in funding led by Luminous Ventures and manufacturer Huaqin, and came out of beta with apps for iPhone, Mac and Apple Watch. Ambient listening is off by default but can be turned on for all-day context capture; the app focuses on meeting notes and proactive in-meeting suggestions, and lets users start a task on one device and continue on another. Mistlabs also plans a desktop app that can observe work on the user's computer and a standalone hardware device with a screen, speaker, camera and microphones. Mo said Ambi does not store recordings and encrypts data, without specifying the encryption, and that telling others about ambient capture remains the user's responsibility — a problem he called industry-wide.
It shows how always-on ambient AI agents are shipping despite unresolved consent and disclosure questions.
One of the core promises of AI is that the more it knows about a person, the better it will be able to assist them with tasks and make appropriate suggestions, which, if you’ll believe the tech companies, requires apps and devices to listen, watch, or record users’ activity all the time and gather all possible context.
There’s obviously privacy and data security concerns with anything that’s collecting data about you continuously. But startups are building such apps undeterred anyway, arming themselves with the belief that the market for personalized assistance is big enough to swallow such concerns.
Former Plaud exec Peter Mo is building Ambi to do something similar. The app aims to provide real-time intelligence and insights to people by listening to them all the time.
The company said on Monday that it has raised $26 million across multiple funding rounds led by Luminous Ventures, which has backed companies like Meituan and Unitree Robotics, and original design manufacturer (ODM) Huaqin.
Ambi is also releasing apps for iPhones, Macs, and Apple Watch. These apps act like meeting notetakers, but users can choose to have them listening so they can capture context all day.
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