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"]
Notable customers
[]
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