Sesame AI, a startup from Oculus co-founder Brendan Iribe, has raised $250 million in a Series B round and launched a beta version of its AI-powered smart glasses, aiming to advance voice assistant technology.
The company was established in June 2023 by CEO Brendan Iribe, Chief Technology Officer Ankit Kumar, and founding engineer Ryan Brown. Their collective experience in artificial intelligence, speech technology, and consumer hardware guides the startup’s mission. The $250 million Series B funding round was led by Sequoia Capital and Spark Capital, providing the financial resources to compete in the smart glasses market against established technology firms.
We also raised a $250M Series B with Sequoia, Spark, and friends. Still getting started, just with a bit more fuel in the tank.https://t.co/nGITsyaEuj
— Brendan Iribe (@brendaniribe) October 21, 2025
Sesame is developing smart glasses integrated with advanced conversational AI. The system’s AI voices, named “Maya” and “Miles,” have been noted for their naturalism and emotional expressiveness. The technology is designed to capture the rhythm and emotion of human dialogue, making interaction with the device feel more fluid. This focus on natural speech is a central component of the product’s design and user experience.
A beta version of the AI-powered smart glasses is now available to users. This launch follows significant public interest generated by an early demonstration of the technology, which was accessed by over one million people. The interactions during this preliminary phase resulted in more than five million minutes of conversation being logged with the AI system, indicating a high level of user engagement prior to the beta release.
In a related move, the company released its base AI model, CSM-1B, which is the technology powering the Maya assistant. This 1-billion-parameter model is available under an Apache 2.0 license, which allows for commercial use with few restrictions. Sesame positions its hardware as a lightweight, user-friendly alternative to more expensive and bulky virtual reality headsets offered by competitors such as Meta and Apple.
