Meta acquires AI audio startup WaveForms to boost emotional voice technology
Founded by Alexis Conneau, a former audio researcher at Meta and OpenAI, and Coralie Lemaitre, a former advertising strategist at Google, WaveForms AI launched in December 2024.
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Meta Platforms has acquired WaveForms AI, a startup specialising in detecting and replicating emotion in audio through artificial intelligence, according to a report by The Information.
Founded by Alexis Conneau, a former audio researcher at Meta and OpenAI, and Coralie Lemaitre, a former advertising strategist at Google, WaveForms AI launched in December 2024. Earlier this year, the company secured $40 million in funding in a round led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
As part of the acquisition, Conneau and Lemaitre will join Meta’s newly formed AI division, Superintelligence Labs, reflecting the company’s growing investment in AI-powered audio. The unit is working on advanced voice capabilities, aiming to create more human-like and emotionally responsive audio systems.
Meta’s interest in AI voice technology has been intensifying. The company recently hired Johan Schalkwyk, a former Google Fellow renowned for his work in speech AI, who has joined Superintelligence Labs as Voice Lead. Last month, Meta also acquired Play AI, another startup focused on producing realistic, human-like voices.
The acquisition of WaveForms comes amid Meta’s broader AI talent push, which has seen it attract leading figures from companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Apple, and Google. Recent high-profile hires include Daniel Gross, founder of AI startup Safe Superintelligence; Ruoming Pang, who led Apple’s Foundation Models team; and Nat Friedman, former CEO of GitHub.
