CONFIRMED as company statements, reported by TechCrunch and SiliconANGLE on 12 October 2026. Privacy measures are COMPANY CLAIMS that TSN has not independently checked.
Ambi, an AI startup run by former Plaud executive Peter Mo, said on Monday that it “has raised $26 million across multiple funding rounds led by Luminous Ventures … and Original Design Manufacturer (ODM) Huaqin”, TechCrunch reported [1]. SiliconANGLE names the company Mistlabs Ltd. and describes the funding as a Pre-A round led by Luminous Ventures and Huaqin Technology [2]. Huaqin designs and makes smart devices for other brands [2]. No valuation was disclosed.
What Ambi does
Ambi is releasing apps for iPhone, Mac and Apple Watch [1]. They work like meeting note-takers, but users can choose to leave them listening to capture context all day [1]. SiliconANGLE says the software is now out of beta [2].
The company says its AI agent can suggest things or surface relevant information during a meeting, based on your calendar, meetings, knowledge base and web data, and that a task started on one device can continue on another [1].
The startup also plans its own hardware device with a screen, a speaker, a camera and microphones [1]. SiliconANGLE says there is a waitlist and the device will follow “later this year” [2].
Privacy: what the company says
- Mo said users can turn off ambient capture “at any time, and the feature is off by default” [1].
- The company says it does not store any recordings of users [1]. COMPANY CLAIM.
- It says it encrypts the data, but did not say what kind of encryption it uses [1]. COMPANY CLAIM.
It is still up to users to tell people around them that Ambi is listening. Mo said: “We have to inform our users that they have to tell others about ambient capture. We, as an industry, haven’t solved this problem [of disclosure]. We have tried to put the information about disclosure in every place possible, but if users try to hide the capture, we can’t just solve the problem” [1].
Team
Ambi has over 50 staff across offices in San Francisco, Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen [1].
Sources
- TechCrunch (Ivan Mehta), “Former Plaud exec raises $26M for AI app that listens to you in the background”, 12 October 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/12/former-plaud-exec-raises-26m-for-ai-app-that-listens-to-you-in-the-background/
- SiliconANGLE (Duncan Riley), “Mistlabs takes its Ambi AI system out of beta on Apple devices with $26M in funding”, 12 October 2026. https://siliconangle.com/2026/10/12/mistlabs-takes-its-ambi-ai-system-out-of-beta-on-apple-devices-with-26m-in-funding/
 raised $26M, launching AI apps for iPhone, Mac and Watch that can listen all day; capture is off by default.){kind=link}