Ambi Raises $26M for Always-On AI Assistant App

Former Plaud executive Peter Mo has launched Ambi, securing $26 million in funding across multiple investment rounds to build an ambient artificial intelligence platform. The funding effort was led by Luminous Ventures—known for backing Meituan and Unitree Robotics—alongside original design manufacturer Huaqin. The capital supports Ambi's launch of software for iPhone, Mac, and Apple Watch designed to capture continuous context throughout a user's day.

Unlike standard AI meeting notetakers that process transcripts after calls end, Ambi aims to trigger helpful actions while conversations are still happening. By analyzing a user's calendar, previous meetings, personal knowledge base, and live web data, the agent proactively offers knowledge and suggestions during discussions. Users can also initiate a task on one device and seamlessly resume it on another. Ambi plans to expand this ecosystem with a desktop app that remembers user activity, as well as a dedicated hardware device equipped with a screen, speaker, camera, and microphones.

For practitioners, the rise of background listening tools creates new workflow efficiencies alongside severe data privacy and legal compliance hurdles, particularly regarding third-party consent. Ambi leaves ambient capture turned off by default, encrypts data, and refrains from storing user recordings. However, Mo acknowledged that third-party notification remains an "industry-wide problem," placing the responsibility on users to inform others when ambient recording is active.

Ambi currently employs more than 50 people across four offices in San Francisco, Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. The company is using its new capital to recruit go-to-market teams and AI engineers dedicated to developing speech-recognition models.