Edward Zhang
Edward Zhang is currently Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Nuance Labs and a Founder Fellow at South Park Commons. He founded Nuance Labs, which is still running, and previously held research and engineering roles at Apple, Facebook, and Google.
Nuance Labs raises $50M Series A to build real-time multimodal AI avatars, led by Lightspeed
Seattle startup Nuance Labs, founded by former Apple Vision Pro engineers, raised $50 million in a Series A led by Lightspeed to build a single end-to-end multimodal model that produces synchronized audio and visual AI avatar responses in real time. The firm aims to eliminate laggy, stuttering, and awkward nonverbal behavior in current avatars by ingesting audio and video together rather than chaining separate speech, language, and synthesis models.
Nuance Labs raises $50M Series A to build full‑duplex AI that processes and generates real‑time human cues
Seattle-based Nuance Labs, founded in early 2025 by former Apple PhD researchers Fangchang Ma, Edward Zhang, and Karren Yang, raised $50 million in Series A to build a single "full-duplex" foundation model that simultaneously processes and generates real-time conversational cues from live audiovisual signals. The startup aims to create AI avatars that respond with human-like facial expressions, tone, and timing to enable more natural, in-the-moment interactions.
Nuance Labs raises $50M Series A from Lightspeed with NVIDIA as investor to build full‑duplex conversational foundation model
Nuance Labs raised a $50M Series A led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with NVIDIA joining as a new investor to build a full‑duplex foundation model that perceives and responds to speech, facial expression, gaze, and tone in real time to enable more lifelike, emotionally expressive avatars.
Nuance Labs, Founded by Ex-Apple PhDs, Raises $10M to Build Emotional AI Model, Chooses Seattle Over San Francisco
Nuance Labs, founded by ex-Apple PhDs Fangchang Ma and Edward Zhang, raised $10 million led by Accel to develop an AI model that understands and expresses emotion, choosing Seattle as their base over San Francisco. The startup aims to create more realistic AI and has attracted local talent enthusiastic about their mission.
Organizations
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Nuance Labs Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer 2025–present · current
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South Park Commons Founder Fellow 2024–present · current
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Apple Senior Research Scientist 2022–2024, Research Scientist 2021–2022 · past
Education
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University of Washington Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Computer Science · 2013–2021
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Princeton University 2009–2013
