AI
Nvidia backs Paris voice AI startup Gradium's expanded $100M seed round
The French startup, spun out of research lab Kyutai, is opening a Bay Area office to compete for talent as it scales ultra-low-latency voice models.
TechCrunch — AI
Gradium, a Paris-founded voice AI startup, has grown its seed round to $100 million by bringing in new backers including Nvidia, the company announced this week. The additional capital marks an expansion of its original December funding round that had closed at $70 million.
The fresh injection of cash will help the company establish a presence in Silicon Valley, a move the startup framed as essential for recruiting top talent and positioning itself within the world's most active AI innovation hub—home to leading players like Anthropic, Google, Meta, and OpenAI.
Origins and pedigree#
Gradium emerged from stealth last year as a spinoff from Kyutai, a well-funded French AI research institute. The startup was co-founded by Neil Zeghidour, a machine learning researcher whose background spans stints at Google Brain, DeepMind, and Facebook. Kyutai itself was founded by Xavier Niel, a billionaire telecom entrepreneur, with backing from the French government.
The company's original seed backers represented a heavyweight roster: FirstMark Capital, the European venture firm Eurazeo, DST Global Partners, Eric Schmidt (former Google CEO), and Niel's own capital.
The product angle#
Gradium is building voice models designed to handle large-scale deployment while minimizing latency—the goal being to eliminate the noticeable delays that plague many AI voice agents today. The ability to deliver near-instantaneous responses could prove valuable for customer service bots, virtual assistants, and other conversational AI applications.
Competitive landscape#
The voice AI market has grown crowded. ElevenLabs, a competitor focused on speech synthesis, reached a $11 billion valuation in early 2026. Major platform companies—Google with Gemini, and others—are also investing heavily in voice capabilities. Despite the rivalry, Gradium has already attracted significant customers since launching, including French automaker Renault, suggesting its technology is finding real-world traction.
