ABR Closes Funding to Power the Next Wave of On-Device Voice AI

WATERLOO, ON – January 12, 2026 – Applied Brain Research (ABR), a company aiming to redefine the boundaries of artificial intelligence, has successfully closed an oversubscribed seed funding round to accelerate its mission of bringing high-performance voice AI directly to edge devices. The investment, led by the tech-focused venture capital firm Two Small Fish Ventures, marks a significant vote of confidence in ABR's unique full-stack approach, which combines patented software models with purpose-built silicon.

The funding will directly fuel the commercialization of ABR's breakthrough product, the TSP1 state space accelerator chip. As part of the investment, Eva Lau, General Partner at Two Small Fish Ventures and a respected figure in the technology startup ecosystem, will join the ABR board of directors. This strategic partnership signals a pivotal moment for the company and the broader edge AI market, validating a future where powerful AI does not depend on a constant connection to the cloud.

A Fundamental Shift from Cloud to Edge

For years, sophisticated AI capabilities like natural language understanding and speech generation have been almost exclusively the domain of massive, power-hungry data centers. Devices like smartphones, smart speakers, and in-car assistants act as little more than microphones and speakers, sending user data to the cloud for processing and waiting for a response. This model, while functional, is fraught with inherent weaknesses.

"Voice is becoming the default interface for the next wave of edge devices but using cloud voice AI solutions is a terrible experience, plagued by delays, reliability and privacy concerns while also being very expensive," said Kevin Conley, CEO of Applied Brain Research, in a statement. The latency, or delay, between speaking a command and receiving a response can ruin the user experience. Unreliable internet connectivity can render a device useless, and the constant transmission of personal voice data to third-party servers raises significant privacy red flags.

ABR's technology is designed to sever this dependency. By enabling complex voice AI to run entirely on a small, low-power chip, the company addresses these critical pain points head-on. "We're elevating the experience of super responsive on-device voice interaction with low power solutions that also significantly reduce device operating costs," Conley added. This move to on-device processing promises a future of instant, reliable, and private interactions with our technology.

The Technology Behind the Revolution

At the heart of Applied Brain Research's innovation is its Time Series Processor (TSP1) chip, the company's first-generation accelerator built specifically for real-time processing of time-series data, such as voice. The chip's architecture is a fundamental departure from conventional processors, optimized to run ABR's patented State Space Models (SSMs).

These SSMs, inspired by principles of computational neuroscience, represent a new paradigm in AI. Unlike the massive Transformer-based models that power many cloud AI services, SSMs are designed for extreme efficiency. ABR's key invention in this space is the Legendre Memory Unit (LMU), a novel technique proven to be exceptionally effective at compressing and understanding sequential data. This allows the TSP1 chip to perform tasks like full vocabulary automatic speech recognition (ASR) and text-to-speech (TTS) with unprecedented efficiency.

The company claims its solution can perform these complex tasks while consuming under 30 milliwatts of power. This is a staggering 10 to 100 times more power-efficient than other available alternatives, which often require significantly more powerful and power-hungry hardware to achieve similar results on-device. This leap in efficiency is what makes sophisticated, always-on voice AI viable for battery-constrained devices for the first time.

Unlocking New Markets and Industries

The implications of this technological leap are vast, promising to unlock new product categories and enhance existing ones across a wide range of industries. The recent CES technology show highlighted clear demand for the kind of solutions ABR provides, particularly in sectors where cloud reliance is a significant handicap.

In Augmented Reality (AR), where seamless, low-latency interaction is paramount, the TSP1 can enable instant voice control and responsive AI agents without the lag that breaks immersion. For robotics, it allows for immediate command recognition and response, while drastically cutting the crippling operational costs associated with constant cloud communication. Wearables, long limited by battery life, can finally realize their potential with sophisticated, always-on AI voice control that doesn't drain the device in hours.

Perhaps most critically, the technology offers transformative potential in medical devices. The ability to perform powerful on-device inference on biosensor data ensures that sensitive health information remains private and secure, never leaving the device itself. In the automotive sector, ABR's solution guarantees a consistent and reliable in-vehicle voice experience, whether the car is driving through a tunnel or in a remote area with no network connectivity. By providing both the TSP1 chip and optimized software models, ABR is positioning itself as a key enabler for innovation across these burgeoning markets.

Strategic Investment Signals a Market Inflection Point

The decision by Two Small Fish Ventures to lead the seed round is a strong indicator of the technology's commercial potential. The venture firm's investment thesis is heavily focused on the next frontier of AI at the edge, seeking technologies that can deliver cloud-level intelligence in localized, power-constrained environments. ABR fits this profile perfectly.

Eva Lau, whose experience includes co-founding the global entertainment platform Wattpad, brings invaluable strategic guidance to the company's board. Her involvement underscores the belief that ABR is not just developing a niche component, but a foundational technology for the next generation of computing.

"The embedded AI market is at an inflection point," Lau stated. "Applied Brain Research has demonstrated that sophisticated voice AI doesn't require the cloud. Their technology unlocks entirely new product categories and use cases that weren't previously viable." While the exact financial details of the oversubscribed round remain undisclosed, the strong investor interest suggests a widespread belief in ABR's vision and its ability to execute.

With fresh capital and a strengthened board, Applied Brain Research is now shifting its focus from research and development to aggressive commercialization. The company is actively engaging with partners and has launched an early access program for its TSP1 developer kits, putting its revolutionary technology into the hands of product creators who will build the responsive, private, and intelligent devices of tomorrow.