Hume AI, a New York-based startup aiming to give technology the emotional intelligence required to understand and care for human well-being, raised $12.7 million in Series A funding.

Union Square Ventures led the round, with participation from Northwell Holdings, Comcast Ventures, LG Technology Ventures, Wisdom Ventures, and Evan Sharp (Pinterest co-founder).

The funds will be used by the company, which provides its datasets and models via a unified API platform, to meet the demand for its technology, which is based on the analysis of human expressive behavior in images, audio, video, or text.

Hume AI provides accurate and comprehensive AI/ML tools for understanding vocal and nonverbal communication, including speech prosody, vocal bursts, facial expressions, and how emotions are expressed in language.

The company has research collaborations with labs at Mt. Sinai, Boston University Medical Center, and Harvard Medical School to investigate how using Hume AI’s tools to analyze patients’ nuanced vocal and facial expressions can improve healthcare outcomes for patients.

Company: Hume AI Inc

Raised: $12.7M

Round: Series A

Funding Month: January 2023

Lead Investors: Union Square Ventures

Additional Investors: Northwell Holdings, Comcast Ventures, LG Technology Ventures, Wisdom Ventures, and Evan Sharp

Company Website: https://hume.ai/

Software Category: Communication Platform

About the Company: Hume AI is a research lab and technology company that provides easy-to-deploy, science-backed vocal, facial, and language expression models, datasets, and APIs. Its platform gives technologies the ability to be empathic, whether you want to design expressive characters, optimize a digital assistant or conversational AI, conduct clinical research, or detect toxicity on a social media platform. Hume AI's mission is to ensure that artificial intelligence is built to serve human goals and emotional well-being. Hume AI has tripled its revenue growth quarter over quarter since its public launch in January 2021.

Source: https://siliconvalleyjournals.com/hume-ai-raises-12-7m-in-series-a-funding/