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§ Private Profile · New York City, NY, USA
Oboe is a technology company.
Oboe is an AI-powered educational platform that generates personalized learning courses across diverse subjects from simple prompts. It leverages a sophisticated, multi-agent AI architecture to rapidly produce high-quality, customized content, delivered through various formats including text, visuals, audio lessons, and interactive assessments, designed to cater to individual learning preferences. This technical approach allows for dynamic course creation and content verification, ensuring relevance and accuracy.
The company was co-founded by Nir Zicherman and Michael Mignano, who previously built and sold their startup, Anchor, to Spotify. After departing Spotify, Zicherman and Mignano conceived Oboe from the insight that while the internet provides vast information, it lacks effective teaching mechanisms. Their prior experience in democratizing content creation and distribution informed their vision for a more structured and personalized learning experience.
Oboe serves a broad audience of lifelong learners, empowering individuals to quickly grasp new topics or delve deeply into specific areas. The platform aims to be the definitive resource for intellectual curiosity, providing engaging and fun educational content tailored to each user's needs. Its long-term vision is to fulfill the intrinsic human desire for knowledge through accessible, adaptable, and highly personalized learning pathways.
Oboe has raised $20.0M across 2 funding rounds.
Oboe has raised $20.0M in total across 2 funding rounds.
Oboe has raised $20.0M in total across 2 funding rounds.
Oboe's investors include Bryan Kim, Adam D’Angelo, Garry Tan, Jared Hecht, Lenny Rachitsky, Mati Staniszewski, M.G. Siegler, Michael Shulman, Eniac Ventures, Factorial, Haystack, Offline Ventures.
Oboe has raised $20.0M across 2 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $16.0M Series A in December 2025.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 10, 2025 | $16M Series A | Bryan KIM | Adam D’Angelo, Garry TAN, Jared Hecht, Lenny Rachitsky, Mati Staniszewski, M.g. Siegler, Michael Shulman, Eniac Ventures, Factorial, Haystack, Offline Ventures | Announced |
| Oct 1, 2024 | $4M Seed | Eniac Ventures | Abstract Ventures, Kevin Hartz, Haun Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures, NFX, The HIT Forge, Tiger Global Management, Gokul Rajaram, Kanjun QIU, Paul Yacoubian, Stanley Druckenmiller, Matthew Lieber, Kayvon Beykpour, Nikita Bier, Scott Belsky, TIM Ferriss, Factorial Capital, Haystack, Homebrew, Offline Ventures | Announced |
Oboe is an AI-powered learning platform that enables users to create personalized, lightweight courses on any topic via simple prompts, generating dynamic audio experiences like podcasts tailored to user preferences and learning materials.[1][2] Founded by Anchor co-founders Nir Zicherman and Michael Mignano, it serves learners seeking flexible education in areas like STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics), programming, history, languages, and more, solving the problem of rigid, one-size-fits-all content by offering chapter-based, adaptive courses produced in seconds.[1][2] The company recently secured $16 million in Series A funding led by a16z, with participation from Eniac, Haystack, Offline, Factorial, and angels like Adam D'Angelo, Garry Tan, and Lenny Rachitsky, signaling strong growth momentum just three months post-launch, including plans for mobile apps and global language support.[1][2]
Oboe emerged from the experience of its founders, Nir Zicherman and Michael Mignano, who previously co-founded Anchor, a podcast creation tool acquired by Spotify.[2] After leaving Spotify in October 2023—where Zicherman scaled the audiobooks business, highlighting audio's role in accessible learning—they recharged briefly before launching Oboe in 2025.[2] The idea crystallized around using AI to democratize high-quality, personalized education, inspired by demand for on-demand learning and the limitations of static tools.[1][2] Early traction was rapid: within three months, Oboe demonstrated efficient execution, reaching potential for hundreds of millions of users, backed by its small team's consumer product expertise.[1]
(Note: A separate entity, Oboe Technologies at oboecad.com, builds FPGA prototyping tools for silicon engineering, but context points to the AI learning startup.[3])
Oboe rides the wave of AI-driven personalized education, capitalizing on surging demand for accessible STEM and skill-based learning amid remote work and lifelong upskilling trends.[1] Timing aligns with advanced multi-agent AI models enabling real-time, high-quality content generation, outpacing traditional edtech's slow course development.[2] Market forces like audio consumption growth (post-Spotify audiobooks boom) and investor enthusiasm for AI platforms—evident in a16z's lead—favor Oboe, positioning it to disrupt podcast/lecture hybrids and tools like NotebookLM by focusing on systematic, adaptive experiences.[1][2] It influences the ecosystem by lowering barriers to custom education, potentially accelerating knowledge dissemination for millions while inspiring AI applications in consumer learning platforms.
Oboe's immediate path includes mobile iOS/Android launches, multi-language expansion, and deeper STEM/pricing innovations to capture global users and monetize demand.[1][2] Trends like agentic AI orchestration and audio-first learning will propel it, with its Anchor-honed execution enabling platform-scale growth amid edtech consolidation. Its influence may evolve from niche generator to ecosystem leader, bundling with music/audio services and fostering creator economies—echoing how it transforms prompts into personalized knowledge gateways, much like Anchor did for podcasts.