GoKawiilFortell raises $163M to build AI-driven hearing aids
Startup Fortell, founded by Matthew de Jonge, has raised $163 million from investors including Founders Fund, Thrive Capital, and Valor Equity Partners CEO Antonio Gracias. The company is developing hearing aids that use AI to identify important sounds in real time and suppress background noise, rather than simply amplifying everything at once as most current devices do. De Jonge discussed the six-year effort behind the product on TechCrunch's Equity podcast.