Gradium
Category: Voice / Speech AI
Gradium develops audio language models (ALMs) that enable ultra-low latency, realistic voice AI interactions at scale Gradium was founded in 2025. The company is led by Neil Zeghidour. Based in Paris, France. Team size: 8-20. Total funding raised: $70M. Latest round: Seed, $70.0M, December 2025, led by FirstMark Capital. Key investors include FirstMark Capital, Eurazeo, DST Global Partners, Eric Schmidt, Xavier Niel, Korelya Capital, Amplify Partners, Yann LeCun, Rodolphe Saadé.
- Founded
- 2025
- Headquarters
- Paris, France
- Team size
- 8-20
- Total funding
- $70M
Value proposition
Delivers near-instantaneous, expressive, multilingual voice AI with superior accuracy, low latency (sub-200ms), and scalability, outperforming traditional LLMs in speech tasks
Products and solutions
Audio language models for speech recognition, synthesis, and classification, Multilingual support (English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese), Cloud API with per-minute billing, Edge SDK planned for Q1 2026
Unique value
Spun out from nonprofit AI lab Kyutai; assembled team of top researchers from Google DeepMind, Meta FAIR, Google Brain, and Jane Street; uses natural language supervision on audio-text data for superior voice understanding and generation; focuses on sub-200ms latency for real-time interactions
Target customer
Developers and enterprises building voice-enabled AI applications
Industries served
Gaming, Customer care, Language learning, Healthcare, AI agents, Metaverse experiences, Global voice assistants
Technology advantage
ALMs trained on paired audio-text datasets enable ultra-realistic expressivity, accurate transcription, and sub-200ms latency at scale; commercializes Kyutai's frontier research for B2B deployment; cloud API already operational with edge SDK planned
How they differentiate
Gradium specializes in ultra-low latency audio language models (ALMs) for real-time, multilingual voice AI with superior accuracy, expressiveness, and conversational flow, outperforming general LLMs in speech tasks; spun from Kyutai lab's research like Moshi; currently operational with cloud API
Main competitors
ElevenLabs, OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral
Key partnerships
Ongoing collaboration with Kyutai for access to latest generative audio research, Plans to open product centers in Berlin and New York
Major milestones
Spun out from Kyutai AI lab (September 2025), Raised $70M seed round (December 2025), Public launch of platform with first ALMs supporting 5 languages, Cloud API currently operational, Plans for Berlin and New York product centers
Growth metrics
Cloud API operational with per-minute billing; plans to expand team to ~80 people within the year; edge SDK planned for Q1 2026
Market positioning
Early-stage leader in low-latency, realistic voice AI for developers building agents, entertainment, and enterprise apps; positioned against crowded field of LLM voice add-ons and specialized synthesizers with focus on scalable, natural interactions and sub-200ms latency
Geographic focus
Europe (Paris, France-based) with initial multilingual emphasis on European languages; global developer/enterprise reach with plans for Berlin and New York product centers
Patents and IP
None publicly disclosed
About Neil Zeghidour
Former Staff Research Scientist at Google DeepMind and Meta FAIR; Founding member and Chief Modeling Officer at Kyutai
Official website: https://gradium.ai