Latest news with #AI2Incubator
Geek Wire
13-05-2025
- Business
- Geek Wire
AI startup led by UW computer science whiz enables ‘superhuman hearing capabilities'
GeekWire's startup coverage documents the Pacific Northwest entrepreneurial scene. Sign up for our weekly startup newsletter , and check out the GeekWire funding tracker and venture capital directory . Shyam Gollakota. A new stealthy Seattle startup is taking sound technology to a whole new dimension. Hearvana was just founded by University of Washington computer science researchers. Shyam Gollakota, co-founder of Hearvana, told GeekWire that the company is 'creating AI breakthroughs that are shaping the future of sound.' 'Our AI algorithms enable on-device superhuman hearing capabilities and will be part of billions of earbuds, hearing aids and smartphones,' he said. 'It is an exciting time.' Gollakota, a renowned tech inventor and researcher, said the company is developing unique AI models to help people seamlessly choose what they want to hear in real-time. Part of the company's secret sauce is its ability to quickly process audio on a device without requiring large amounts of power or compute on a device. Hearvana is being incubated at the AI2 Incubator in Seattle. 'Hearvana is my favorite kind of startup as it addresses a familiar pain point — we all struggle to hear in noisy settings like a restaurant or a party — with deep AI technology,' said Oren Etzioni, technical director and partner at AI2 Incubator. Etzioni, the former CEO of the Allen Institute for AI, called Gollakota a 'world-class computer scientist.' Hearvana co-founder Malek Itani. Gollakota has a track record of turning research into startups. He previously co-founded Sound Life Sciences, a UW spinout that developed an app to monitor breathing that was acquired by Google in 2022. He's also the co-founder of Wavely Diagnostics, which uses a smartphone app to detect ear infections. Gollakota last year won a $100,000 award as one of six researchers honored as part of this year's Infosys Prize. His research focuses on wireless tech, battery-free devices, WiFi sensing and imaging, medical diagnostics via smartphones, and more. Malek Itani, a research assistant and PhD student at the UW's computer science school, is a co-founder of Hearvana. Itani was an intern at Meta, where he worked on smart glasses. Gollakota and Itani published research last year on a headphone prototype that uses AI to create a 'sound bubble' and can learn the distance for each sound source in a room.
Associated Press
15-04-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Friday Harbor raises $6M to help community mortgage lenders match the speed and efficiency of industry giants
- AI-powered platform enables lenders of all sizes to close loans faster, reduce costs and ensure compliance in real time - SEATTLE, Wash., April 15, 2025 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Friday Harbor, an AI-powered platform that helps loan officers assemble complete and compliant loan files in real time, today announced the completion of a $6 million seed round. The round was led by Abstract Ventures, a San Francisco-based venture firm with $1.5 billion in assets under management and a track record of backing breakout companies including Rippling, xAI, Hebbia, Brigit and Hippo (NYSE: HIPO) and Mischief, an early-stage VC fund co-founded by Plaid CEO Zach Perret. Also participating in the round were Wischoff Ventures, a VC firm founded by Blend (NYSE: BLND) alum Nichole Wischoff; and the AI2 Incubator, a technical incubator born from the Allen Institute for AI (AI2). With Friday Harbor's platform, lenders of all sizes can leverage AI to read and interpret borrower documents, generate a borrower-specific needs list, underwrite files and flag potential conditions—all in real time. Each flagged issue includes a suggested resolution, enabling loan officers to take action with a single click. By compressing what typically takes weeks of back-and-forth into just minutes, Friday Harbor reduces downstream friction and accelerates time to close. Friday Harbor was founded with a mission to make advanced AI tools accessible to all lenders—not just those with the biggest budgets. By replacing outdated, manual workflows and automating key underwriting steps, the platform empowers banks, credit unions and independent mortgage banks (IMBs) to match—or even surpass—the speed, cost-efficiency and borrower experience of mega-lenders like Rocket Companies and United Wholesale Mortgage, which together accounted for one-fifth of all IMB originations in 2024, according to Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data. 'I've always believed AI could be the great equalizer in mortgage lending,' said Friday Harbor CEO and Co-founder Theo Ellis. 'Thousands of lenders deserve access to the same tools as the mega-lenders—and in many cases, they're now doing things the biggest players can't. That's what happens when you give lenders technology built by people who truly understand both AI and mortgage.' Early adopters of Friday Harbor confirm the system's ability to address costly 'stare and compare' tasks and mitigate errors that slow loan production: Friday Harbor was founded by Ellis and Jesse Collins (CTO) and launched in 2024 with support from the AI2 Incubator and CoFound Partners. Ellis was previously head of U.S. growth and an early employee at machine learning fintech Pagaya Technologies (NASDAQ: PGY), where he helped launch multiple new consumer credit verticals for the company. Collins previously held senior engineering roles at leading fintech companies including Affirm (NASDAQ: AFRM) and Zillow (NASDAQ: Z), where he specialized in applying artificial intelligence to fraud detection and underwriting systems. The $6M seed round will support the growth of Friday Harbor's engineering team and support integrations with leading mortgage LOS and point-of-sale platforms—paving the way for more lenders to automate file setup, accelerate underwriting and compete directly with the largest lenders in the country. About Friday Harbor Friday Harbor is an AI-powered platform that helps loan officers assemble complete and compliant loan files in real time. The company combines deep fintech expertise with cutting-edge artificial intelligence to remove complexity, slash origination costs and deliver a better borrower experience. For more information, visit Tags: #mortgagetech #AI #fintech #seedfunding #venturecapital LOGO link for media: NEWS SOURCE: Friday Harbor ### MEDIA ONLY CONTACT: (not for publication online or in print) Leslie W. Colley Depth for Friday Harbor [email protected] (678) 622-6229 ### Keywords: Mortgage, Friday Harbor Inc, AI-powered platform that helps loan officers, SEATTLE, Wash. This press release was issued on behalf of the news source (Friday Harbor) who is solely responsibile for its accuracy, by Send2Press® Newswire. Information is believed accurate but not guaranteed. Story ID: S2P125538 APNF0325A To view the original version, visit: © 2025 Send2Press® Newswire, a press release distribution service, Calif., USA. RIGHTS GRANTED FOR REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART BY ANY LEGITIMATE MEDIA OUTLET - SUCH AS NEWSPAPER, BROADCAST OR TRADE PERIODICAL. MAY NOT BE USED ON ANY NON-MEDIA WEBSITE PROMOTING PR OR MARKETING SERVICES OR CONTENT DEVELOPMENT. Disclaimer: This press release content was not created by nor issued by the Associated Press (AP). Content below is unrelated to this news story.
