TheModelDesk

Gradium, a Paris-based voice AI startup, closed a $100 million seed funding round in July 2026, expanding its initial December 2024 raise of $70 million. Nvidia participated in the additional funding, joining early backers FirstMark Capital, Eurazeo, DST Global Partners, Eric Schmidt, and French telecom billionaire Xavier Niel. The company was spun out of French AI research lab Kyutai and co-founded by Neil Zeghidour, a former researcher at Google Brain, DeepMind, and Facebook.

Gradium specializes in audio models that generate voice with ultra-low latency for conversational AI agents, eliminating the typical pauses associated with AI voice responses. Since its December launch, the startup has secured major customers including French automaker Renault, demonstrating early market traction despite competition from well-funded rivals like ElevenLabs (valued at $11 billion) and established players such as Google's Gemini voice capabilities.

The company is using the new capital to establish a Bay Area office to recruit talent closer to major AI labs including Anthropic, Google, Meta, and OpenAI, positioning itself within the world's leading AI ecosystem while maintaining its Paris headquarters.