Nirva secures $33m to develop a smart pendant that listens only to the wearer

Nirva, founded in 2025 by former Meta Reality Labs employees Wei Lyu, Jason Chen, and Hanying Hu, raised $33 million, including a $25 million pre-Series A round. The startup is developing a smart pendant that functions as both a necklace and bracelet, weighing eight grams with up to three days of battery life. Lyu emphasized the device passively listens only to the wearer’s speech, offering insights into emotions, communication style, and self-awareness. It filters out others’ conversations, recording only the wearer’s voice without storing audio data. Nirva plans to launch the $249 device in November, with shipments to early users by year-end. The device will be available in silver, brushed silver, black, and gold. Lyu highlighted the app’s focus on personal insights, offering reminders and action items to improve self-understanding and self-compassion. Nirva faces competition from Taya, Friend, and Bee, which also develop AI-powered wearables. The startup’s privacy approach involves training its model using user-recorded voice snippets during onboarding, ensuring the device captures only the wearer’s speech. Lyu noted the app analyzes tone, pitch, volume, and speed to derive emotional insights, which are surfaced to users. The company aims to position itself as a personal insights provider, helping users navigate daily life with greater self-awareness.