Nuance Labs Raises $50M Series A

Nuance Labs, a Seattle-based artificial intelligence startup developing a foundational AI model designed to perceive and respond to real-time human expression, has raised $50 million in Series A funding. This latest round brings the company's total funding to $60 million.

Investors

The Series A round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. The round also included participation from existing investors Accel and South Park Commons, alongside new investments from NVIDIA and Define Ventures.

Nuance Labs Use of Funds

The company plans to use the capital to accelerate model development and hire additional researchers and engineers across modeling, data, evaluation, and real-time serving teams.

About Nuance Labs

Founded in 2025 by former Apple PhD researchers Fangchang Ma, Edward Zhang, and Karren Yang, Nuance Labs is a research lab dedicated to building a full-duplex foundation model that processes and generates conversational cues simultaneously. The platform focuses on enabling AI to ingest live audiovisual signals, such as tone, gaze, and timing, to generate real-time facial and vocal responses for applications in sales, customer service, professional coaching, and education.

Funding Details

Company Website: https://nuancelabs.ai

Company: Nuance Labs
Raised: $50M
Round: Series A
Funding Date: September 2026
Lead Investor: Lightspeed Venture Partners
Additional Investors: Accel, South Park Commons, NVIDIA, Define Ventures
Software Category: Artificial Intelligence
Source: https://www.geekwire.com/2026/seattles-nuance-labs-raises-50m-to-give-ai-models-human-expression-and-nuance/