SCB 10X, the disruptive technology investment arm of SCBX Group, announced its participation as a co-lead investor alongside Point72 Ventures in the oversubscribed $6 million Pre-Seed funding round for Hearvana. Hearvana is a pioneering company in Auditory Intelligence that is developing technology enabling both humans and machines to achieve “superhuman listening abilities.”
The funding round also saw strategic participation from the AI2 Incubator, SBI US Gateway Fund, Forston VC, Ascend, J4 Ventures, Pack Ventures, Moai Capital, and Amazon Alexa Fund.
Superhuman Auditory Intelligence: Redefining Device Perception
Hearvana’s platform is poised to redefine how sound is perceived by AI and humans. It represents a major advancement in real-time, on-device audio augmentation and comprehension, allowing devices—including AI assistants, hearing aids, smart glasses, and voice-driven products—to listen, interpret, and manipulate audio with unprecedented quality and low latency.
The technology empowers devices to perceive the world beyond human capability, enabling them to grasp intent and context even in complex, noisy environments, thereby enhancing communication between people and with machines.
Pailin Vichakul, Chief Investment Officer at SCB 10X, emphasized the team’s core strengths. “Led by a highly technical, domain-expert team, Hearvana sits at the intersection of AI, audio, and embedded hardware, creating a next-generation auditory layer that advances edge AI and human–machine interfaces, powering superhuman hearing for personalized AI agents.”
Jeffrey Lu, Investor at Point72 Ventures, noted the market potential. “We believe Hearvana is approaching an exciting area in AI, focusing on how devices listen. Their work has the potential to unlock a new layer of intelligence for voice interfaces, smart devices, and hearing applications, and we’re thrilled to support the team.”
Bridging Cutting-Edge Science with Scalable Applications
Hearvana was founded by Shyam Gollakota, a professor at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, alongside embedded systems and audio AI experts Malek Itani and Tuochao Chen.
The founders bring decades of expertise in auditory computing, embedded intelligence, and deep learning, building upon pioneering work in technologies such as Target Speech Hearing and Full-Duplex Dialogue Agents.
Paul Bernard, Director of the Alexa Fund, expressed interest in the cost-efficiency of the approach: “The team’s cost-efficient approach to making advanced hearing capabilities more accessible by bringing its audio technologies to everyday devices aligns with our focus on customer obsession.”
With the newly secured funding, Hearvana plans to expand its engineering and go-to-market teams and launch commercial pilots with partners across the consumer electronics and AI ecosystems.
Shyam Gollakota, Co-Founder and CEO of Hearvana, concluded: “We see a future where devices don’t just hear, they understand and help humans communicate better with each other and with AI. This funding allows us to move faster from innovation to deployment.”
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