Rylo, formerly known as Nagish, has raised $85 million in new funding to accelerate the expansion of its AI-powered communication platform for deaf and hard-of-hearing users. The round included growth capital from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund, a new investment from Canaan and participation from existing investors Vertex Ventures and Contour. With this latest financing, the company’s total funding now exceeds $100 million as it seeks to broaden its accessibility-focused technology offerings.
Founded in 2021, Rylo initially built its business around real-time captioning and text-to-speech services for phone calls, delivered through its FCC-certified platform. While those capabilities will remain central to its Rylo Phone app, the company is expanding into a broader suite of communication tools powered by AI. Planned enhancements include workplace accessibility features, speaker recognition, sentiment analysis, network optimization and real-time fraud detection. The recent rebrand reflects the company’s ambition to evolve beyond call captioning into a comprehensive communication platform that supports a wider range of interactions for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals.
The funding comes as interest in accessibility technologies continues to grow, driven by advances in AI, speech recognition and assistive communication tools. Rylo has already expanded its capabilities through acquisitions such as Sign.mt, which added real-time sign language translation technology to its portfolio. As digital health and consumer technology companies increasingly invest in hearing and communication solutions, Rylo is positioning itself to play a larger role in making everyday communication more accessible and inclusive for millions of people worldwide.
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