YC-backed David AI raises $50M to build diverse audio datasets for next-gen AI — TFN

San Francisco-based audio information analysis lab David AI has raised $50 million in a Collection B spherical led by Meritech and NVIDIA.  Current traders, together with Alt Capital, First Spherical Capital, Amplify Companions, and Y Combinator, additionally participated. This brings David AI’s complete funding to roughly $80 million, together with a $25 million Collection A and an earlier $5 million elevate in 2025.

With the brand new funding, David AI plans to increase its analysis operations, develop engineering and product groups, deepen collaboration with AI labs and {hardware} firms worldwide, and improve its frameworks to raised consider the real-world efficiency of AI speech fashions.

World’s first audio information analysis lab

Based in 2024 by Tomer Cohen (CEO) and Ben Wiley (CTO), each previously of Scale AI, David AI is the world’s first devoted audio information analysis lab centered on constructing the information layer for next-generation audio AI. The corporate creates high-quality, various audio datasets that mirror the real-world variety of human speech, encompassing languages, cultural contexts, feelings, and numerous acoustic environments. This allows AI fashions to adapt naturally to a variety of real-world situations.

“Audio AI has the unimaginable alternative to carry AI into the ‘actual world’, making AI accessible to billions of individuals. That mentioned, the audio interfaces of the long run require exponentially extra information and evaluations than what is obtainable right now, to stay as much as this potential,” the corporate mentioned.  

David AI employs a research-driven method that rigorously curates datasets and scales them with excessive consideration to element. They serve many main AI labs and several other of the “Magazine 7” tech giants, powering voice AI fashions throughout numerous industries, together with robotics, wearables, generative media, and buyer help automation. The corporate not too long ago crossed an eight-figure annual income run price and continues to develop quickly.

Within the aggressive panorama, David AI’s most important rivals embrace Outlined.ai, PublicAI, Human Native AI, Ydata, and Syntheticus.

“We’re excited for this subsequent chapter of rising David AI to raised serve our prospects,” mentioned the founders. “ If we do our job effectively, audio AI will proliferate, fueling all of the real-world use circumstances we’re excited to see come to life, like humanoid robots, wearables, private assistants, and generative media.”