Hearing tech startup Legato emerges from stealth with $12M and a peek at its AI hearing glasses

Hearing loss affects an estimated 50 million adults in the United States, but only around 20% of those with diagnosed hearing loss seek treatment. Legato , a new hearing tech company, aims to close that gap. The startup is emerging from stealth on Wednesday with $12 million in funding and a first look at its AI hearing glasses, the company told TechCrunch exclusively. The glasses, called Legato Frames, integrate the company’s patented hearing-assistance technology into the arms of eyewear frames. Legato Frames are expected to launch later this fall. Legato was founded by Mehul Trivedi and Steve Romine, who bring extensive experience in wearables and hearing care from Bose, where Trivedi led the creation of Bose Frames and Romine ran the hearing aids division. Trivedi left Bose to work at EssilorLuxottica, where he led smart eyewear efforts and worked on the Meta Ray-Bans, while Romine went on to serve as COO of hearing care company Audicus. After spending years at larger companies, Trivedi took some time off to explore the intersection of hearing technology and smart eyewear. During that time, Trivedi came across technology he believed could bring the two together, so he contacted Romine and the pair founded Legato in late 2024. Image Credits: Legato / “Our goal is to make hearing as ubiquitous as vision,” Trivedi said in an interview with TechCrunch. “It’s kind of a no-brainer that you go to an eye exam, you get your glasses, you wear your glasses, and you’re happy, and you do that for the rest of your life — and the idea of it being blurry again where you would just stop wearing them is not a consideration. I think that’s what we want to do with hearing: just make it something that people address and almost forget about.” Legato is targeting people with mild to moderate hearing loss, which represents 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,