Maya Research raises $1.9 million to develop culturally aware voice AI
Maya Research, a Bengaluru- and San Francisco-based startup, just raised $1.9 million to build smarter voice AI.
Led by NYU graduates Dheemanth Reddy and Bharath Kumar Kakumani, the company is working on AI that doesn't just read text aloud: it actually understands how real people talk, including cultural quirks and local slang.
Maya research exceeds 3 million downloads
Instead of basic text-to-speech, Maya's tech aims to help billions of new internet users in places where talking is easier than typing.
Their app already has over three million downloads across India, Southeast Asia and the Middle East and North Africa region, giving them a lot of feedback to keep improving.
Their main model, Maya 1, is ranked sixth globally for quality and eventually expects to generate revenue by helping users discover relevant financial products, government schemes, healthcare services, commerce offerings and other digital services in their own dialects.