Tekedia · Jun 2026
Tekedia Capital publicly announced an investment in AirCaps and described the company as building AI assistance for in-person conversations via lightweight AR glasses.
Company research
Public company, workplace, funding, and market signals
Updated Jul 29, 2026
Overview
AirCaps is a 2024-founded smart-glasses startup building lightweight AR glasses that show live captions, translate 60+ languages, and provide AI meeting intelligence for Deaf and hard-of-hearing users, travelers, and professionals. Public sources place the operating company in San Francisco while the legal address is in New Haven, and the team appears to be a small 1-10 person startup.
Primary product
AirCaps smart glasses for real-time captions, translation, and AI conversation assistance
Founded
2024
Headquarters
San Francisco, California, United States (operating HQ); registered/legal address: 470 James Street, STE 007, New Haven, CT 06513, United States
Team size
1-10
Industry
Computers and Electronics Manufacturing
Sub-industry
Smart glasses / assistive AR wearables
Offices
San Francisco, California, United States
Cupertino, California, United States
New Haven, Connecticut, United States
Business model
direct-to-consumer hardware sales
subscription software (Pro)
enterprise/clinical deployments
Funding
Stage
seed
Total raised
$500K
Latest round
Seed VC · Jun 2026
Jun 2026 · Tekedia Capital
Dec 2025 · Y Combinator
Oct 2025
People & investors
Leadership
Founder & CEO
Co-Founder & CTO
Founding Engineer
Work & culture
Mission-driven and accessibility-first, with a builder-heavy culture focused on shipping conversation-assistive hardware and software quickly. Public messaging emphasizes obsession with voice AI, smart glasses, and practical real-world use cases.
Compensation
The clearest public compensation signal is a YC job listing for a Product Engineer in San Francisco at $150K-$220K; no broader compensation policy was found publicly.
Product & market
Pricing
One-time hardware sale ($599) plus optional Pro subscription ($20/month); enterprise pricing available on request
Differentiators
- —real-time captions on-lens during in-person conversations
- —translation in 60+ languages
- —lightweight 49g form factor
- —4-microphone beamforming for noisy rooms
- —no camera for privacy
- —speaker identification
- —HSA/FSA eligibility
- —offline support for 9 core languages
Technology
4-microphone beamforming array
MicroLED waveguide display
Bluetooth 5.3 LE
iOS companion app
Android companion app
speech recognition / ASR
speaker diarization
neural machine translation
TLS 1.3
AES-256
FHIR APIs
voice AI models
Customers
people with hearing loss / Deaf and hard-of-hearing users
international travelers
language learners
sales professionals
healthcare workers
executives
founders
other meeting-heavy professionals
Competitors
XanderGlasses
Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses
Otter
Fireflies
Granola
Envision Glasses
Scale & contact
Latest news
WIRED · Jul 2025
WIRED profiled AirCaps-style transcription glasses and reported that the system worked surprisingly well in real-world use.
The New Yorker · Apr 2025
The New Yorker covered the broader real-world captioning-glasses story that AirCaps emerged from, including the hearing-loss use case and the competitive landscape.
Yale Alumni Magazine
Yale Alumni Magazine profiled Madhav Lavakare and AirCaps in early 2026, noting brisk sales, the $649 price point, international shipping, and earlier prototype and grant history.
Jobs and careers at AirCaps
0 jobs at AirCaps
No open positions
Check back later for new openings