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Startupspublished

Legato Raises $12M for AI Hearing Glasses That Filter Voices From Noise

The startup’s wager is that a glasses form factor can lower cost, comfort and stigma barriers for people who have not adopted conventional hearing aids.

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Legato Raises $12M for AI Hearing Glasses That Filter Voices From Noise
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Legato has raised twelve million dollars to bring a new kind of hearing device to market: glasses that use AI to pull voices out of background noise. Its Legato Frames are open-ear eyewear with hearing hardware built into the arms, aimed at people with mild to moderate hearing loss who have not adopted conventional hearing aids because of cost, discomfort, or stigma. The company’s approach is different from simply pointing microphones toward a speaker. Legato says its system separates voices from ambient sound, then amplifies the speech. Dual speakers direct audio toward the wearer, and the startup claims they reduce sound leaking to nearby people by ninety-nine percent. That figure has not been independently verified in the launch materials. The funding came from Neotribe Ventures, Listen, and Village Global as Legato exits stealth. The company says its technology is covered by four granted patents and more than twenty pending applications. Its founders, Mehul Trivedi and Steve Romine, previously worked on hearing and wearable products at Bose; Trivedi also worked at EssilorLuxottica, and Romine later became COO of Audicus. Legato expects to sell the Frames through its website and selected eye-care providers in fall 2026. That retail route is central to the pitch: the company says it could lower prices and potentially make vision-insurance coverage possible. The key question is whether Legato can turn its voice-separation and comfort claims into a product people will actually wear—and whether eye-care retailers will adopt it.

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3 key points

Legato has raised $12 million to commercialize Legato Frames, open-ear glasses designed to enhance speech for people with mild to moderate hearing loss. The startup plans to sell through its website and select eye-care providers in fall 2026, using a channel it says could enable vision-insurance coverage and lower costs than hearing aids. Its AI voice-separation and 99% sound-leakage reduction figures remain company...

  1. 01

    Legato says four granted patents and more than 20 pending applications cover its hearing-glasses technology.

  2. 02

    The founders previously worked on Bose hearing and wearable products; Mehul Trivedi also worked at EssilorLuxottica.

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    Neotribe Ventures, Listen, and Village Global funded the round as Legato exited stealth.

For people with mild to moderate hearing loss, Legato is proposing a different purchase decision: choose eyewear that also amplifies conversation. The company has emerged from stealth with $12 million and Legato Frames, glasses that place hearing-assistance hardware inside their arms and use AI to separate voices from background noise.

The company is targeting the largest segment of the hearing-loss population, according to Legato: people with mild to moderate loss. Its founders are positioning the frames against cost, discomfort and stigma associated with traditional hearing aids, rather than presenting them as conventional smart glasses with an added audio feature.

Legato says its system distinguishes voices from ambient noise, then amplifies the voices. That differs from the directional microphones often used in traditional hearing aids, which focus on sound from a particular direction and can be difficult to use in noisy places such as restaurants.

The Frames use an open-ear design. Legato says a dual-speaker system directs sound toward the wearer while canceling escaping sound, a design intended to avoid broadcasting audio to people nearby. The 99% sound-reduction figure is a company claim; the launch materials do not provide an independent product test.

Legato co-founders Mehul Trivedi and Steve Romine.
Legato was founded in late 2024 by Mehul Trivedi and Steve Romine, whose prior work included Bose hearing and wearable products. Source: techcrunch.com.

Legato Frames are expected later in fall 2026 through the company’s website and select eye-care providers. That channel is central to the pitch: Legato says the frames will cost a fraction of traditional hearing aids and may qualify for vision insurance when bought through an eye-care clinic.

Mehul Trivedi and Steve Romine founded Legato in late 2024 after careers spanning Bose; Trivedi also worked on smart eyewear efforts at EssilorLuxottica, while Romine later served as COO of Audicus. The company says much of its new funding has gone to product development and marketing, indicating that it still has to turn its form-factor and signal-processing claims into a retail product people will wear.

Sources

  1. techcrunch.comHearing tech startup Legato emerges from stealth with $12M and a peek at its AI hearing glasses | TechCrunch
  2. globenewswire.comLegato Emerges from Stealth with $12 Million in Funding to Pioneer a New Era of Hearing Devices with AI-Powered Hearing Glasses

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