The startup first emerged from stealth<\/a> in February, offering two demos of its technology \u2014 AI voices named \u201cMaya\u201d and \u201cMiles.\u201d The voices were soon accessed by more than a million people within the first few weeks, who generated more than five million minutes of conversation, according to a new post<\/a> by Sesame investor Sequoia about its participation in the startup\u2019s Series B.<\/p>\n \u201c[T]he experience was unlike anything we\u2019d used before. Sesame\u2019s conversational layer felt different,\u201d the post states. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t just translate LLM output into audio\u2014it generates speech directly, capturing the rhythm, emotion, and expressiveness of real dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n Early reviews of the tech demo seem to agree, as one report by The Verge<\/a> described Sesame as \u201cgenuinely fun\u201d and \u201cnatural-sounding.\u201d <\/p>\n Sesame says its upcoming glasses will offer \u201chigh-quality audio\u201d and access to an AI companion that will \u201cobserve the world alongside you.\u201d <\/p>\n Sequoia also noted the smartglasses Sesame is building will be fashion-forward, so they look like something you\u2019d choose to wear even if they didn\u2019t offer built-in AI technology. A timeframe for their availability is not yet being shared; as Sequoia noted, \u201chardware takes time.\u201d<\/p>\n On that front, Sesame may have an advantage. Its founding team also includes Oculus co-founder Nate Mitchell<\/a> as its Chief Product Officer, former Oculus COO and Fitbit exec Hans Hartmann<\/a> as COO, as well as former Oculus engineer manager and Reality Labs engineering director Ryan Brown,<\/a> and longtime Facebook and Meta exec Angela Gayles<\/a>. <\/p>\n In addition to sharing the news of its Series B, Iribe announced<\/a> on X that Sesame is now opening an early beta of the Sesame iOS app. The app experience will allow testers to get hands-on with the AI technology being built, as the app will have the ability to \u201csearch, text and think,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n Beta testers are asked to keep their testing experiences confidential<\/a> for the time being, which includes not discussing features or results beyond the official beta test forums.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/sesame-glasses.webp\")
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