An estimated 50 million adults in the United States suffer from hearing loss, but only about 20% of people diagnosed with hearing loss seek treatment. A new hearing technology company, Legato, aims to fill that gap.
The startup emerged from stealth on Wednesday with $12 million in funding and a first look at its AI hearing glasses, the company exclusively told TechCrunch. The glasses, called Legato Frames, incorporate the company’s patented hearing aid technology into the arms of the glasses frames. Legato Frames will be available later this fall.
Legato was founded by Mehul Trivedi and Steve Romine, who bring extensive experience with Bose wearables and hearing aid care. Trivedi led the development of Bose Frames and Romene ran the hearing aid division. Trivedi left Bose to work at EssilorLuxottica, where he led smart eyewear efforts and worked on Meta Ray-Ban. Meanwhile, Mr. Romene served as COO of hearing aid company Audicus.
After years of working in large corporations, Trivedi took some time off to explore the intersection of hearing technology and smart eyewear. During that time, Trivedi came across a technology that he believed could bring the two together, so he contacted Romine and the two founded Legato in late 2024.
“Our goal is to make hearing as universal as sight,” Trivedi said in an interview with TechCrunch. “It’s kind of natural that you go to your vision test, you get your glasses made, you wear your glasses and you’re happy. And you do that for the rest of your life. And the idea that if you stop wearing glasses, it’s going to be blurry again is not taken into account. I think that’s what we want to do with hearing. We just want to make hearing something that people pay attention to and almost forget about.”
Legato targets people with mild to moderate hearing loss, the largest segment of the hearing loss population, the startup says.
The company started with the goal of making hearing care more accessible by addressing the cost, comfort, and stigma associated with traditional hearing aids. Legato set out to make the glasses as small and light as possible, and developed a unique acoustic system, signal processing stack, and mechanical architecture to achieve this.
Traditional hearing aids often use directional microphones to focus on sound from a specific direction, which works well in quiet environments but can be difficult in noisy environments such as restaurants. Legato takes a different approach by using an AI-powered system to distinguish between background noise and speech and amplify only the speech.
The goal is to make speech clearer without creating the cognitively draining listening experience typical of traditional hearing aids.
“We wanted to offer a unique experience,” says Trivedi. “It’s a very discreet, normal-looking form factor. It’s designed to feel and look just like regular glasses. So we want it to be a product that’s hassle-free and easy to use, has no controls to fiddle with, works everywhere, works all day long, doesn’t require a ton of setup, and just provides better hearing.”
The frame has an open-ear design, but it doesn’t transmit sound to the surrounding area. Featuring a dual speaker system that transmits sound to the wearer while canceling any leaking sound, it reduces sound by 99% just inches away from the ear.
The company’s funding from Neotribe Ventures, Listen, and Village Global is primarily earmarked for product development, along with marketing efforts.
“With this product, we have the opportunity to build a product that addresses a large number of people and eliminates all the compromises of traditional hearing aids,” Trivedi said. “Hearing isn’t just about ‘I want to listen to TV better’ at first glance. It’s really about connection. When you hear better, you can connect with the world. It reduces your risk of dementia and your risk of depression,” he continued.
“In improving hearing, there are factors that influence hearing health. We have a 16-hour product that is trusted to help people hear and see. We want to continue to help them in every way we can.”
Legato said the frames will be available later this year through select eye care providers nationwide, cost “a fraction of the price” of traditional hearing aids, and may be covered by vision insurance if purchased through an eye clinic.
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