Hume AI
Hume AI, founded in 2021 by Alan Cowen, is a voice AI company that builds models and APIs for emotionally intelligent speech.
Profile
Hume AI provides APIs and models that enable voice AI systems to detect, interpret, and respond to human emotional expressions in speech.
Hume AI, founded in 2021 by Alan Cowen, is a voice AI company that builds models and APIs for emotionally intelligent speech. The company raised a $50 million Series B in March 2024 led by EQT Ventures, with participation from Union Square Ventures, Nat Friedman & Daniel Gross, Metaplanet, Northwell Holdings, Comcast Ventures, and LG Technology Ventures, at a $219 million valuation. In July 2025, Hume closed a Series B-II round (amount undisclosed).
By 2026, the company reported $100 million in revenue. In January 2026, Google DeepMind executed a reverse acqui-hire, bringing on CEO Alan Cowen and several top engineers under a licensing agreement, effectively transferring core talent to the search giant. Hume's product suite includes the Empathic Voice Interface (EVI), a speech-to-speech system with end-of-turn detection and interruptibility; Octave, a closed-source TTS system with voice cloning and modulation; and TADA, an open-source LLM TTS system.
The company also offers a Human Feedback API for running preference studies and a library of curated speech datasets. Customers include Markets EQ, which uses Hume's APIs for earnings call analysis, and researchers at the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich studying empathic AI in shopping assistants. The company maintains The Hume Initiative, a nonprofit focused on ethical guidelines for empathic AI. The Google acqui-hire raises questions about Hume's independent future, as the company's core team has moved to a competitor, though the licensing deal may keep its products operational.
Who buys this
- Financial services firms analyzing earnings calls and investor communications
- Customer service platforms building voice-based support agents
- Academic researchers studying human-AI interaction and emotional intelligence
- Enterprise training and development teams creating voice-based learning tools
- Voice application developers integrating expressive TTS and conversational AI
Publicly disclosed clients
- Markets EQ
- University of Zurich
- ETH Zurich
- WebAppClouds
- GAF
- AudioStack
Strengths and what to watch
Strengths
- Proprietary empathic large language model (eLLM) trained on millions of human interactions, enabling nuanced end-of-turn detection and expressive response generation.
- Revenue growth from zero in 2023 to $100 million in 2026, indicating strong product-market fit in enterprise voice AI.
- Open-source contributions (TADA model, datasets) foster developer community adoption and academic validation, as seen in studies with University of Zurich and ETH Zurich.
Watch for
- January 2026 reverse acqui-hire by Google DeepMind transferred CEO Alan Cowen and key engineers, potentially hollowing out the company's leadership and technical core.
- Dependence on a single licensing agreement with Google DeepMind for continued operations post-acqui-hire creates concentration risk and strategic uncertainty.
- The company's valuation of $219 million in 2024 may not reflect the diminished independent value after the team departure, and future funding rounds are uncertain.
Recent moves
Key Information
- Industry
- Applications - Horizontal, Audio & Voice
- Founded
- 2021
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Hume AI and what does it do?
Hume AI is a voice AI company that builds models and APIs for emotionally intelligent speech. Its technology detects, interprets, and responds to human emotional expressions in voice, enabling more natural and empathic interactions between people and AI systems.
What products does Hume AI offer?
Hume AI's product suite includes the Empathic Voice Interface (EVI), a speech-to-speech system with end-of-turn detection; Octave, a closed-source TTS system with voice cloning; and TADA, an open-source LLM TTS model. It also offers a Human Feedback API and curated speech datasets.
How much funding has Hume AI raised and what is its valuation?
Hume AI raised a $50 million Series B in March 2024 at a $219 million valuation, led by EQT Ventures. It closed a Series B-II round in July 2025 (amount undisclosed). By 2026, the company reported $100 million in revenue.
What happened with Hume AI and Google DeepMind in 2026?
In January 2026, Google DeepMind executed a reverse acqui-hire, bringing on CEO Alan Cowen and several top engineers under a licensing agreement. This transferred core talent to Google, raising questions about Hume's independent future and creating strategic uncertainty.
Who are some notable customers using Hume AI?
Notable customers include Markets EQ, which uses Hume's APIs for earnings call analysis, and researchers at the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich studying empathic AI in shopping assistants. Other clients include WebAppClouds, GAF, and AudioStack.
What is the Hume Initiative?
The Hume Initiative is a nonprofit organization maintained by Hume AI that focuses on developing ethical guidelines for empathic AI. It aims to ensure responsible development and deployment of emotionally intelligent voice AI technologies.
Sources
- www.hume.ai — Series B funding ($50M), EVI product launch, investor list, eLLM description, The Hume Initiative
- www.cbinsights.com — Total raised ($74.02M), valuation ($219M in 2024), 2026 revenue ($100M), Series B-II (July 2025), reverse acqui-hire (Jan 2026)
- techcrunch.com — Google DeepMind reverse acqui-hire of CEO and engineers, licensing agreement
- www.hume.ai — Customer Markets EQ, use of Expression Measurement API and EVI for earnings call analysis
- www.hume.ai — Academic study with University of Zurich and ETH Zurich using EVI for shopping assistant empathy research
- research.contrary.com — Company background, funding history, product details