Nirva raises $25 million to create AI jewelry with a “perspective” that listens and provides insights

Nirva Labs, an artificial intelligence wearable device company, today announced that it has raised $25 million in early funding to accelerate the development of its sleek AI jewelry that provides users with an emotional perspective.

The company is backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners, South Park Commons and others. Today’s round brings Nirva’s total funding to $33 million, following an $8 million seed round.

Nirva’s first product will be an AI-powered jewelry, a necklace or bracelet designed to automatically log a user’s day, detect mood and relationship patterns, and provide advice via a companion app. The necklace is elegant and attractive, small enough to fit around the neck or wrist with tailored clothing, and housed in elegant cases made of silver, gold, onyx and other materials with a minimalist design.

The central pitch is an AI assistant that becomes more useful by observing everyday life, rather than just relying on users to type or invoke it as a chatbot. Instead, they use it for useful insights and relationship advice.

“Ten years in the wearables industry have taught me that most of the industry’s ambitions are left behind,” said co-founder and CEO Wei Lyu. “That’s why we set a rule for each hardware generation: Even with an empty battery, it should still be a beautiful piece of jewelry, but we don’t sell a device. We sell self-image.”

This moves away from much of the AI ​​wearables industry, which relies heavily on increasing user productivity. These include AI necklaces, pendants, watches and bracelets that listen in on conversations to transcribe them or respond to wake words to light up and answer questions only when necessary.

Instead, Nirva is a therapeutic journaling tool that reflects on the user’s life to give them an idea of ​​what shaped their day.

Lyu gave an example of what he notices. “I was dog-sitting for a friend and accidentally closed a door on the puppy’s paw. I kept asking if it was OK and felt guilty pretty quickly,” he said. “I never told Nirva what had happened, but it had heard enough. I later realized how quickly I had moved on to blaming myself. I wouldn’t have noticed it on my own, and it has occurred to me several times since.”

The AI ​​in the wearable connects to a companion app on a mobile device and shares these insights with the user. Instead of recording the people around the user, it primarily recognizes the user’s voice and, with the user’s permission, can draw on the user’s calendar, location and Apple Health to better understand their day.

Orders will open in November and the price is expected to be $249. The first pieces are expected to be delivered at the end of the year.

According to market research firm Grand View Research, the global AI wearables market is estimated to be worth around $55.7 billion in 2026 and is expected to reach $310.6 billion by 2033. The market is largely taken up by enterprises and is largely driven by augmented reality devices, with increasing demand for health monitoring and fitness tracking.

However, there is growing interest in AI-powered wearable devices. For example, productivity and “listening” devices are gaining traction, although Nirva’s model deviates from the current trend of direct assistants.

The funding is expected to get the company off the ground and help it move through the next generations of hardware. The company currently has a team of around 20 employees and is hiring engineers to manufacture the personal AI jewelry, as well as product designers and marketers in San Francisco.

Images: Nirva