LiveKit
 | This article contains promotional content. (September 2026) |
 | |
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Artificial intelligence |
| Founded | 2021 |
| Founders |
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| Headquarters | San Francisco, CA, USA |
| Website | livekit |
LiveKit is an American technology company that provides software for building voice, video, and physical AI agents, along with cloud infrastructure.[1] The company is based in San Francisco, California.
History
[edit]LiveKit was founded in 2021 by David Zhao and Russ d'Sa, who is chief executive officer.[1] It began as an open-source project for developers, to simplify the process of building real-time audio and video applications (to transmit audio and video to users in real time), using the WebRTC protocol.[2][3][4] Demand for a cloud-hosted version of LiveKit led d'Sa and Zhao to start a company, expanding the open-source project and creating a cloud version, LiveKit Cloud.[4]
Shortly after OpenAI's launch of ChatGPT, d'Sa created a demo of a voice interface with the chatbot, using LiveKit's technology, which led to a deal between the two companies to use LiveKit Cloud for ChatGPT's voice modes.[1][3] Other customers include Salesforce, Meta, Microsoft, SpaceXAI, Spotify, and 911 emergency services.[1][3][4][5] The software underpins Visio, a video conferencing tool built by the government of France.[5] In iOS 18, LiveKit is embedded into FaceTime for emergency calls.[2]
Technology
[edit]The company provides software and services for building and running voice, video, and physical AI agents. It also provides network infrastructure hosted on cloud providers, for services like audio streaming.[1] LiveKit transfers audio to an AI model, which converts the audio to text, processes it through a language model, and converts the response to speech.[2] Its Agent Framework allows developers to attach Python or Node.js programs to LiveKit rooms as participants, to enable activities such as voice processing.[3]
Funding
[edit]In December 2021, LiveKit announced a $7 million seed round led by Redpoint Ventures, followed by an additional $8 million seed round in 2022.[6][7] In June 2024, LiveKit raised $22 million in series A funding led by Altimeter Capital.[8] In April 2025, LiveKit raised $45 million in a series B funding round led by Altimeter,[4] at a $345 million valuation.[9] In January 2026, LiveKit raised $100 million in a series C funding round led by Index Ventures, bringing its total amount raised to $183 million and valuing the company at $1 billion.[1][3]
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Bass, Dina (22 January 2026). "LiveKit, Seller of Voice Tools to OpenAI, Raises $100 Million". Bloomberg. Retrieved 17 August 2026.
- 1 2 3 Makaryan, Martin (26 September 2024). "5 Q's for Russell D'Sa, Co-founder and CEO of LiveKit". Center for Data Innovation. Retrieved 17 August 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Riley, Duncan (22 January 2026). "LiveKit raises $100M at $1B valuation to scale real-time AI and media platform". Silicon Angle. Retrieved 24 August 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 Wiggers, Kyle (10 April 2025). "LiveKit's tools power real-time communications, including OpenAI's Voice Mode". TechCrunch. Retrieved 24 August 2026.
- 1 2 Bovenziner, Noah (11 February 2026). "Inside the open source project powering France's video platform revolution". The Stack. Retrieved 24 August 2026.
- ↑ Hall, Christine (13 December 2021). "LiveKit co-founder believes the metaverse needs open infrastructure". TechCrunch. Retrieved 26 August 2026.
- ↑ "LiveKit Raises $100M In Series C Funding Led By Index Ventures". Superb Crew. 27 January 2026. Retrieved 26 August 2026.
- ↑ Shrivastava, Rashi (4 June 2024). "This $110 Million Startup Is Building A Nervous System For AI". Forbes. Retrieved 26 August 2026.
- ↑ Feldman, Amy (12 August 2025). "Next Billion-Dollar Startups 2025". Forbes. Retrieved 26 August 2026.