Voice AI investment has reached billions of dollars, funding applications from automated customer support to smart glasses that rely on voice commands.
While labs release new models and hardware makers refine consumer experiences, all this technology requires testing and feedback loops for improvement. Treble, a startup based in Iceland, is positioning itself at the center of this industry by building a simulation platform for model makers, robotics firms, and hardware developers.
Funding and history
Founded in 2020 by acoustic engineers Finnur Pind and Jesper Pedersen, the company raised $18 million in a Series A extension led by Paladin Capital Group. Existing investors KOMPAS VC, Frumtak Ventures, EIC, and Omega ehf participated in the round. Treble received $12 million in 2024, bringing its total funding to over $40 million. Amazon and Logitech are current customers.
The business operates in several verticals related to simulation and data. For voice AI firms, it offers a synthetic data generation platform for speech enhancement, noise suppression, and model training. It also evaluates voice AI models under different conditions to provide feedback to labs. Earlier this year, the company partnered with Hugging Face to launch a benchmark for speech recognition models across various realistic scenarios.
“Audio AI is really a data challenge, and this is where the most opportunities to enable next-generation models and hardware lie. To date, pretty much all sound-related AI has been made from recordings and data scraped from the internet. We believe that accurate physics simulation can be an alternative way to create data for sound,” Pind told TechCrunch.
Hardware testing and wearables
The startup also focuses on hardware design and testing from a voice perspective. It works with headphone and speaker companies on virtual prototyping to help them understand how their products might sound. It can also test how a smart speaker understands commands based on the device’s positioning. Recently, Treble has provided simulation testing for smart glasses and AI devices.
Pind noted the company is excited to work on wearables that enhance hearing for users.
“I’m really excited about the next generation of these devices like headphones and smart glasses that can enable [a feature like] superhuman hearing. That’s an area where you can really just hear better in challenging acoustic environments. Maybe you are in a restaurant, and you only want to hear people within two meters of range, or you are in a seminar, and want to mute people around you,” he said.
Expanding into physical AI
Treble aims to increase its focus in the physical AI space, including robotics, automotive, and drone companies, to enable sound-based functions through testing and simulation.
Francois Ruether, VP of Paladin Capital Group, told TechCrunch that Treble’s platform stands out because it simulates different models and devices. Ruether said the platform’s importance will grow as it expands into more areas.
“Our thesis is that, as more products depend on understanding sound, this infrastructure becomes increasingly valuable across voice AI, wearables, robotics, and physical AI. Customers retain ownership of their models, products, and development workflows, while benefiting from a shared foundation of a simulation-native acoustic infrastructure layer,” Ruether said.
What it means
For engineers building voice systems, the change is practical. Instead of relying solely on internet-scraped recordings, developers can now test how their models perform in specific physical environments using physics-based simulations. This allows for better noise suppression and command recognition without needing to record thousands of hours of real-world audio. Hardware makers gain a tool to prototype sound quality before manufacturing units, reducing the cost of physical prototypes.
