French voice AI startup Gradium has raised around $30m in fresh funding, extending its seed round to over $100m seven months after launching, with new investor Nvidia backing the extension. Gradium did not share which other investors participated or its latest valuation. The first tranche of $70m was secured at the end of last year, led by US VC Firstmark and French investor Eurazeo, with other investors including Xavier Niel, Rodolphe Saadé, and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Gradium spun out of Kyutai, a non-profit AI research lab based in Paris launched in 2023 with €300m in backing from Niel, Saadé, and Schmidt. Gradium builds tools for developers to create voice applications, offering AI models for real-time text-to-speech, speech-to-text, voice-based translating tools, and models for edge devices, plus an open-source framework for building voice agents. Enterprises in sectors from customer relationships to healthcare use the technology. The funding will enable a new office in San Francisco and accelerate research and product development. Sifted data shows AI-native voice startups in Europe raised €536m in the first half of 2026, nearly 50% more than the €360m over the same period in 2025.