Google’s AI note-taking and analysis assistant NotebookLM took off to a spectacular reception at launch, capturing individuals’s imaginations with its skill to shortly whip up summaries and reviews, and switch reams of paperwork into “podcasts” with AI hosts discussing the subject to assist customers of their analysis.
Impressed by the success of the venture, three devs who labored on NotebookLM since its inception at the moment are constructing an audio-first app known as Huxe, which might equally assist customers dive deep into matters by producing a “podcast” with a number of AI hosts. The startup mentioned on Tuesday that it had raised $4.6 million in funding from Conviction, Genius Ventures, Figma CEO Dylan Area, and Google Analysis’s chief scientist, Jeff Dean.
The app launched on an invite-only foundation in June, and is now obtainable to everybody on iOS and Android.
Raiza Martin, together with Jason Spielman and Stephen Hughes, left Google in December 2024 to discover their very own concepts. They initially launched a chatbot slanted in direction of extra B2B use circumstances, however determined to concentrate on the buyer market and constructed a private assistant in March 2025 that would generate personalised pictures, movies, and audio.
“During this phase, we realized that people liked having the ability to generate audio for different topics. We also observed that people often used the app at specific times to get their daily brief or catch up with news while getting ready,” Martin advised TechCrunch.
That perception led the three to lean into audio and construct Huxe.
Huxe primarily offers you a day by day briefing based mostly on the emails you obtain and by connecting to your calendars to grasp your schedule. It additionally allows you to discover matters, and like NotebookLM, it’s going to generate a podcast with AI hosts discussing the subject. You may work together with the AI hosts at any time limit, ask questions in regards to the subject, or request them to clarify factors differently.
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What’s completely different right here is that Huxe lets customers construct a “live station” of any subject, like tech information, sports activities, and even celeb gossip. After you hearken to a station, the app offers you updates by tapping completely different sources — useful for following growing information. There’s additionally a personalised curiosity feed, which mechanically generates audio content material that may curiosity you.
Martin mentioned that throughout the early NotebookLM days, a cohort of energy customers drove the product suggestions, and Huxe is seeing comparable indicators.
“This is a well-suited product for people who spend all day on their screens with tons of tabs open on their browser. People who might want to catch up on their email, schedule, and news can do that without looking at their screen,” she mentioned.
Huxe at the moment is suited to the knowledge market, however leisure could be a potential use case, too. India-based audio firms like Pocket FM and Kuku FM, for instance, faucet AI to let customers create content material. And Huxe just isn’t the one one utilizing audio as a medium. Startups like ElevenLabs and Oboe are leveraging audio, too, as are Google and Meta.
