The company, formerly known as Nagish, is rebranding and broadening its suite of AI-powered tools, including a new sign language translation platform, for Americans living with hearing loss.
Rylo, an AI-powered communication platform built for the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community, has announced $85 million in new funding and the official launch of its rebranded identity, moving away from its previous name, Nagish. To date, the company has raised over $100 million in total financing.
The financing includes growth funding from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund, alongside new investment led by Canaan, with participation from existing investors Vertex Ventures and Contour. The capital will reportedly be used to accelerate Rylo’s expansion beyond phone call captioning into a broader suite of accessibility tools.
Originally founded in 2021, the company operated as an AI-powered, FCC-certified, free platform offering real-time captioning and text-to-speech for phone calls and in-person communication. The rebrand to Rylo—a name bridging the words “Relay” and “Rely”—signals the company’s intent to build a more expansive communication ecosystem.
“For decades, the communication industry treated Deaf and hard-of-hearing people as an afterthought, a compliance checkbox, a clunky relay service nobody actually wanted to use,” says Tomer Aharoni, CEO and co-founder of Rylo, in a release. “We started Rylo because that was unacceptable, and because the people living with it deserved better than what every major company was willing to build. This funding means we get to build all of it.”
Expanding the Core App
The Rylo Phone app will continue to offer real-time captioning and text-to-speech for phone calls and in-person communication. New features in development include workplace accessibility tools, network improvements, speaker characteristics, sentiment analysis, and real-time fraud detection—all aimed at delivering a more equivalent phone call experience for users with hearing loss.
Sign Language Translation
Addressing a growing shortage of certified ASL interpreters, Rylo acquired Sign.mt in 2025, an AI company focused on real-time sign language translation. That acquisition has since led to the development of Rylo Sign, an AI-powered sign language platform designed to support translation between dozens of signed and spoken languages. The move places Rylo among a growing number of companies investing in AI-based sign language translation, a space that has attracted increasing research attention in recent years.
Investor Perspective
“Rylo has built a product that clearly resonates with users by leveraging AI to address a critical and historically underserved need in communication accessibility,” says Andrew Ziperski, partner at General Catalyst, Customer Value Fund, in a release. “The company has demonstrated strong momentum, and we’re excited to support the team with growth financing as they expand adoption and scale the platform to reach more users.”
The announcement comes as AI-powered captioning and accessibility tools continue to gain traction across the hearing healthcare space, with 48 million Americans living with hearing loss representing a substantial market.
More information is available at rylo.com.
