Sesame
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2023
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount101–250
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingSoftware
Sesame firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Sesame
- Legal name
- Sesame AI, Inc.
- Website
- https://sesame.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2023
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 101–250 employees
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Where Sesame is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices3 records
Markets served
Sesame business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Free preview period (iOS and Web): During the initial rollout phase the full iOS Mobile Preview experience is provided free of charge. Users may encounter a short waitlist after sign-up. No payments are processed and the Terms of Use set liability at the greater of amounts paid in the prior 12 months or $100 USD — implying effectively zero revenue per active user today.
- Future intelligent eyewear hardware sales (planned 2027): Sesame's roadmap includes the launch of a fashion-forward smart-glasses hardware collection designed to bring the personal agent into the world with the user, representing a future direct hardware revenue stream. Pricing and channel not yet disclosed.
- Open-source CSM model licensing (Apache 2.0): Key components of CSM research (including CSM-1B) are released open-source under Apache 2.0 on GitHub; no direct licensing fees are collected, though the release is intended to drive ecosystem adoption, brand awareness, and developer mindshare.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Pay-as-you-go | iOS Mobile Preview — free during initial rollout, waitlist possible |
| Freemium | Pay-as-you-go | Web Research Preview — free voice calls (5 min cap if not logged in, 30 min cap if logged in) |
| Other | Pay-as-you-go | Sesame intelligent eyewear — coming 2027, pricing not disclosed |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels8 records
Sesame product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Sesame builds voice-first personal AI agents (Maya, Miles, Simone, Charlie) powered by its proprietary Conversational Speech Model (CSM), a Llama-architecture multimodal transformer that generates real-time, emotionally expressive conversational speech from interleaved text and audio. The agents are delivered through a free iOS Mobile Preview (in 39 countries), a web Research Preview, and forthcoming intelligent eyewear (2027), with the CSM-1B model also released open-source under Apache 2.0.
Product overview
Sesame (Sesame AI, Inc.) is a single-product, voice-first conversational AI platform anchored by its proprietary Conversational Speech Model (CSM), which it deploys through a portfolio of agent experiences: a web-based Sesame Research Preview at app.sesame.com, a Sesame Mobile Preview iOS/Android application that delivers four distinct personal agents (Maya, Miles, Simone, Charlie), and forthcoming Sesame Intelligent Eyewear (smart glasses) targeted for 2027 that will extend those same agents into a wearable form factor. The underlying CSM is also released as the open-source CSM-1B model (Apache 2.0) on GitHub. All four agent surfaces share the same CSM-driven voice stack and per-agent persistent memory, while the Mobile Preview adds richer features such as real-time web search cards, deep dives, notes, reminders, post-call summaries, and Incognito Mode.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Sesame Mobile Preview: iOS mobile application offering Sesame's collection of personal conversational agents (Maya, Miles, Simone, Charlie).
- Sesame Research Preview
Products and services
- Sesame Conversational AI Agents (Maya, Miles, Simone, Charlie) Voice-first personal AI agents built on the proprietary Conversational Speech Model (CSM) with four distinct characters and persistent per-agent memory: Maya (warm storyteller), Miles (laid-back wingman), Simone (curious intellectual), Charlie (witty companion). Designed for everyday consumers seeking natural, hands-free voice interaction for learning, reflection, and in-between moments.
- Sesame Mobile Preview (iOS / Android) Mobile application delivering Sesame's personal agents on iOS (App Store id 6756329076, available in 39 countries as of May 2026, free during initial rollout) and on Android via a waitlist preview. Supports voice calls, text chat, search cards with images, notes, reminders, deep dives, post-call summaries, and Incognito Mode.
- Sesame Research Preview (Web) Web-based research preview of Sesame's conversational agents with voice calls and web search, accessible at app.sesame.com. English is the only officially supported language; calls capped at 30 minutes for logged-in users and 5 minutes for unregistered users.
- Sesame Intelligent Eyewear Fashion-forward, lightweight smart glasses designed for all-day wear with high-quality audio, enabling hands-free access to Sesame's personal agents. Slated for release in 2027 as Sesame's first hardware collection to bring agents into the physical world.
- Conversational Speech Model (CSM / CSM-1B) Open-source end-to-end multimodal speech generation model — a Llama-architecture transformer pair (backbone + decoder) trained on interleaved text and Mimi RVQ audio tokens to produce contextually expressive, low-latency conversational speech. Released as CSM-1B (Apache 2.0) on GitHub for research and developer use.
Quantifiable outcome
- 50:50 win-loss vs ground-truth human speech on naturalness without context in human CMOS evaluation
- +4 more outcomes
Companies that use Sesame
Customer profileSegments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Sesame technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability5 records
Feature7 records
Sesame partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
One partnership is on record.
- Mimi (audio tokenizer authors / Kyutai)coreCSM uses the Mimi split-RVQ tokenizer to encode audio into one semantic codebook plus N-1 acoustic codebooks per frame at 12.5 Hz, enabling efficient conversational speech modeling.
Scale indicators10 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights7 records
Sesame competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- OpenAI: OpenAI's ChatGPT voice mode is the most direct competitor to Sesame's voice-first personal agents, offering conversational speech generation with similar latency and personality goals, but at the scale of hundreds of millions of ChatGPT users. Sesame's CSM is positioned as more natural than ChatGPT voice on published benchmarks.
- Google (Gemini Live): Google's Gemini Live is a voice-first conversational AI assistant shipped across Android and Pixel devices. It competes head-on with Sesame's mobile preview on naturalness, latency, and parallel web search; Google has the distribution advantage but Sesame claims a voice-presence advantage.
- ElevenLabs: ElevenLabs is a leading voice AI platform for high-quality, emotionally expressive speech generation and conversational agents. It targets developers and enterprises with APIs and voice cloning, overlapping with Sesame's underlying CSM technology but with an established paid product and broader language support.
- Hume AI: Hume AI builds emotionally intelligent voice AI with explicit modeling of tone, expression, and empathy (EVI). It is a direct competitor to Sesame's positioning around 'voice presence' and emotional intelligence, though Hume focuses on an API/developer model rather than consumer apps or hardware.
Broad incumbents
- Anthropic: Anthropic's Claude has added voice capabilities and is among the frontier model labs racing to ship conversational voice agents. It competes broadly with Sesame on underlying intelligence and speech quality but does not yet ship a consumer voice-first product or hardware.
- Meta (Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses): Meta's Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are the leading consumer AI-enabled eyewear product, with millions of units shipped and Meta AI integrated. Sesame's planned 2027 eyewear will directly compete on form factor, audio quality, and AI assistant integration, against an entrenched incumbent with retail and manufacturing scale.
Emerging players
- Kyutai: Kyutai is an open-source conversational AI research lab whose Mimi split-RVQ audio tokenizer is used by Sesame's CSM. Kyutai ships competing open real-time voice models (Moshi) and represents both a close technology partner and a direct open-source competitor in conversational speech.
- Rabbit: Rabbit shipped the r1, a consumer AI-native hardware device intended as an always-available ambient assistant. It is comparable to Sesame's planned eyewear as an early attempt to put a personal AI agent into a dedicated consumer hardware form factor, though Rabbit focuses on a handheld rather than wearable form factor.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Sesame social profiles
Digital presenceSesame compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance4 records
Sesame financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Sesame leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles6 records
Sesame funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds3 records
Investors11 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Sesame M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Sesame
What does Sesame do?
Sesame builds voice-first personal AI agents (Maya, Miles, Simone, Charlie) powered by its proprietary Conversational Speech Model (CSM), a Llama-architecture multimodal transformer that generates real-time, emotionally expressive conversational speech from interleaved text and audio. The agents are delivered through a free iOS Mobile Preview (in 39 countries), a web Research Preview, and forthcoming intelligent eyewear (2027), with the CSM-1B model also released open-source under Apache 2.0.
Is Sesame a public or private company?
Sesame is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Sesame founded?
Sesame was founded in 2023. It employs 101 to 250 people.
Where is Sesame based?
Sesame is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does Sesame make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Free preview period (iOS and Web) is the primary driver. The others are future intelligent eyewear hardware sales (planned 2027) and open-source CSM model licensing (Apache 2.0).
Who are Sesame's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are OpenAI, Google (Gemini Live), ElevenLabs and Hume AI. Broad incumbents are Anthropic and Meta (Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses). Emerging players are Kyutai and Rabbit.
Does Sesame have an API?
No public API is recorded for Sesame.