Unicorner - 🦄 Hume AI: Bringing emotion to AI

Hume AI offers companies the ability to understand human communication and expression through artificial intelligence. Some of the tools it provides are APIs, machine learning models, and data analyses that enable analysis of speech (tone and rhythm), facial expressions, and other vocal bursts (laughs, umms, sighs). Hume can run its analysis with human behavior in video, audio, images, and text, and aims to optimize user well-being in many industries. For example, its technology has been used in patient care, where patients’ emotions and expressions have been monitored and analyzed to improve outcomes.
🦄 Unicorner Startup of the Week: Hume AI
 
 
✍️ Notes From The Editors
 
Happy Monday! We had an amazing weekend in San Francisco. If you came out to our founder and investor happy hour at Wefunder's HQ, we hope you had a good time! If you couldn't make it, be on the lookout for announcements soon.
 
For our new readers: We're Unicorner, the weekly newsletter that's identifying the coolest startups destined to become unicorns. Our mission is to support anyone interested in entrepreneurship, whether you're interested in job opportunities, talent recruitment, investment opportunities, and more. We also aim to bring the startup community together through our events, so stay tuned for our next announcement!
 
Last but not least, today's cover was written by Hrishi Jadhav, a name some long-time Unicorner readers might remember. Enjoy!
 
Arek and Ethan 🦄
 
 
📖 Read Recommendation
 
Swirling Visions is a free weekly visual newsletter offering actionable steps to protect your mental health and help you progress on your journey towards better well-being. With a focus on breaking down the stigma surrounding mental illness, we empower our readers to live their best lives by sharing our musings on creativity, mental health, and lifestyle design. Sign up here!
 
Have a cool newsletter you'd like us to share? Reply and let us know!
 
 
Bringing emotion to AI
 
 
Hume AI offers companies the ability to understand human communication and expression through artificial intelligence. Some of the tools it provides are APIs, machine learning models, and data analyses that enable analysis of speech (tone and rhythm), facial expressions, and other vocal bursts (laughs, umms, sighs). Hume can run its analysis with human behavior in video, audio, images, and text, and aims to optimize user well-being in many industries. For example, its technology has been used in patient care, where patients’ emotions and expressions have been monitored and analyzed to improve outcomes.
 
 
🔗 Check it out: hume.ai
 
 
💰 Business Model
Hume operates on a pay-as-you-go model with usage-based pricing. Customers include various research labs, medical care systems, and businesses.
 
📈 Traction and Fundraising
  • Raised $12.7 million Series A from Union Square Ventures, Comcast Ventures, LG Technology Ventures, Northwell Holdings, Wisdom Ventures, Costanoa Ventures, and angels Evan Sharp (Pinterest), Oana Ruxandra (Warner Music Group), and Michael Dempsey (Compound)
  • Raised $5 million seed from Aegis Ventures
  • Plans to expand API beta to thousands and has partnerships with Mount Sinai, Boston University Medical Center, and Harvard Medical School
 
👫 Founders
Alan Cowen, CEO & Chief Scientist
Hume CEO Alan Cowen has a strong background in scientific research regarding emotional well-being and social interaction. Upon graduating from Yale with a degree in Applied Mathematics and Cognitive Science, Cowen attended UC Berkeley for his PhD in Computational Psychology. During this time, he worked as a scientific researcher for various labs and has had numerous publications at Berkeley Social Interaction Lab. Additionally, he was a scientific advisor/researcher at technology companies such as Facebook and, most recently, Google AI. Cowen founded Hume in 2021.
 
💼 Opportunities
 
🔮 Our Analysis
A tweet from Hume CEO Alan Cowen puts it best—“ChatGPT recognizes its own biggest weakness: the need for empathy.” AI has seen tremendous growth recently, and systems are able to process and analyze large sets of data to reach whatever outcome is needed, but the one thing that is lacking is the human aspect.
 
Hume AI operates with the vision of serving human well-being with empathetic AI. The company's early focus has been in health care, with regards to understanding patients’ emotional behavior and providing analysis on pain, depression, and other health issues. Its goal is that the technology is able to prevent the onset of this pain and provide potential interventions that can improve the outcome of the patient care experience. This is only the beginning, because there are many use cases of this technology. Any industry that has a human component (which is every industry) could benefit from this through HR, Sales, and other business functions where analyzing expressions could provide insight. The Hume Initiative, its related non-profit which is trying to provide an ethical path for this AI, provides unique use cases, such as empathetic social robots which are useful for children with autism and social network algorithms which can help analyze hate speech and protect well-being online. With Series A funding underway, Hume will be focusing on rolling out its API to thousands of waitlisted customers and expanding its database of expressions to fine-tune its models for virtually any application.
 
📚 Further Reading
 
 
If you enjoyed today's article, forward this email to a friend!
If you're just seeing this email now, subscribe here.
 
Made with 💜 by the Unicorner Team 🦄
 
 
💰 Bonus Content
If you're interested in launching on Product Hunt, let us know in a reply to this email! We might be working on a little something...
 
Interested in finding your next jobInterested in hiring talent from the Unicorner community?
 
 
Twitter
LinkedIn
 
 
This email was sent to you
You received this email because you signed up with Unicorner.
 
Unsubscribe here 💔
 

Older messages

🦄 Albedo: Aerial quality imagery from space

Monday, February 20, 2023

Albedo aims to create and operate satellites that have 9x higher resolution than what is on the market today. It's also modernizing the satellite imagery process, using cloud computing to fuel real

🦄 Elaborate: Simplifying lab results

Monday, February 13, 2023

Elaborate makes it easy for patients to better understand their lab results. Its platform gives in-depth descriptions of lab results and allows doctors to directly add clarifying comments, avoiding

🦄 Zette: Unlock paywalled articles

Monday, February 6, 2023

Zette is aiming to be the “Netflix for News” by granting readers access to articles behind paywalls. Once a user has joined the Zette platform, they can use the Zette Chrome extension to bypass

🦄 SigmaOS: Internet browsing reinvented

Monday, January 30, 2023

SigmaOS is a new type of internet browser. Unlike traditional browsers like Google Chrome and Safari, SigmaOS prioritizes speed, organization, and collaboration through features like Workspaces to

🦄 Butter: Recovering lost subscription revenue

Monday, January 23, 2023

Butter is recovering customers whose subscriptions have been accidentally canceled for a variety of reasons. Also, we're excited to announce a new community event in SF! 🦄 Unicorner Startup of the

You Might Also Like

🗞 What's New: How 5 vibe-coded games went viral w/out big audiences

Wednesday, March 12, 2025

Also: The definitive AI glossary ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

⏳ 72 hours left! Don’t miss the biggest ecommerce sourcing event of the year

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

This is your last chance to join 9+ sourcing experts LIVE (for FREE!) Hey Friend , Time is running out! ⏳ In just 72 hours, the Ecommerce Product Sourcing & Manufacturing Summit goes live—and if

Positioning Startups in the Age of AI

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

Tomasz Tunguz Venture Capitalist If you were forwarded this newsletter, and you'd like to receive it in the future, subscribe here.​ ​Positioning Startups in the Age of AI​ How do you position and

AI strategies for industrials

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

where major players are making moves, and what it means for the future of the space Hi there, AI is top of mind for executives in the industrial sector – and for good reason. The biggest names in

[CEI] Chrome Extension Ideas #181

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

ideas for Twitter/X, YouTube, Email, and Notion ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

$2.7M ARR

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

IRL events coming to TGA ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

Why you’re so angry at work (and what to do about it)

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

A practical framework for transforming big feelings into wisdom ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

Growth Newsletter #244

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

How not to write a terrible cold email ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

🛎️ Hey Friend , did you get your product costs wrong? (Here’s how to fix it)

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

Do this to lock in the best ALL-IN price from your supplier—no hidden fees, no last-minute price hikes eating into your margins. Hey Friend , Ask Kian Golzari, one of the top product sourcing experts

The next French unicorns

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

+ Arrival shuts down operations; 'another DeepSeek moment'? View in browser Powered by Vanta Author-Martin by Martin Coulter Good morning there, Chinese AI startup Monica has raised alarm bells