Sandbar secures $23M Sequence A for its AI note-taking ring

Sandbar, a startup by former Meta workers Mina Fahmi and Kirak Hong, attracted a lot consideration final 12 months when it confirmed off its note-taking wearable, the Stream ring. The corporate has now raised $23 million in a Sequence A funding spherical led by Adjoining and Kindred Ventures.

The corporate’s sensible ring is concentrated on note-taking, just like merchandise by Plaud or Omi, and never health-tracking like Oura’s merchandise. The ring has a microphone that’s off by default, however might be activated utilizing a flat, touch-sensitive panel on the prime. You possibly can maintain this contact panel to report notes, chat with an AI assistant on the accompanying telephone app, and entry media controls like play, pause, skip tracks, and management the quantity.

Notably, the mic on the ring appears to be tuned for proximity, so it’s important to carry your hand to your face to be able to take notes.

Fahmi, who beforehand labored at startups like CTRL-Labs and Magic Leap, stated Sandbar has been engaged on the ring for over two years, earlier than popping out of stealth final 12 months following a testing section with pals and early adopters.

“The response [to the launch] was so much hotter than we anticipated, which is basically encouraging and significant,” Fahmi advised TechCrunch. “Lots of people stated they may see themselves sporting this.”

Fahmi stated the startup is seeing promising traction from its early customers, with the primary batch of preorders for the ring promoting out final 12 months, which spurred Sandbar to open up a second batch to satisfy demand. He stated some customers use the ring over 50 occasions a day for duties like planning displays, journeys, or meals.

The startup plans to begin delivery the sensible ring this summer season. Sandbar stated it’s specializing in refining its app expertise and what customers can do with their recorded notes. The corporate is engaged on an internet platform, enhancing its consumer interface, and lowering the latency of mannequin responses. In the long run, the corporate needs to allow agentic workflows to allow customers to take motion utilizing their notes.

Fahmi identified that Sandbar is engaged on implementing conversational exchanges into its product, as lots of its customers ask the app’s AI assistant about notes they didn’t handle to finish recording.

“One thing that we predict is important is backwards and forwards dialog. Not like lots of experiences the place you simply say one command and it’s both transcribed or acted upon, like, by way of a wise speaker, Stream is basically good at iterative duties which start, possibly in dialog or modifying a observe, however hopefully broaden to multi-turn conversations, the place you’re Claude Coding in your terminal and you’re clarifying issues [via voice],” Fahmi stated.

Sandbar’s telephone app at present solely works with the Stream ring, however the firm stated it’s contemplating opening up entry to individuals who don’t personal the ring. The app can be utilized by itself to take notes in case the ring is charging or has been misplaced.

Sandbar at present has 15 workers, who’ve beforehand labored at firms like Amazon, Fitbit, Equinox, Google, and Apple. With the brand new fundraising, it plans to double its software program and machine studying groups, and rent advertising and marketing workers.

The class of {hardware} units for notetaking is rising. Firms like Plaud are producing units that may take notes for conferences, and Pebble goals to ship an inexpensive $75 ring this 12 months. Then we now have startups like Taya, that are taking a premium method by designing their merchandise as jewellery to focus on a wider consumer base.

Adjoining’s Nico Wittenborn has expertise investing in voice-focused startups — he backed Blinkist, which might summarize whole books, when he was with Perception Enterprise Companions. He thinks that Sandbar’s Stream has a greater kind issue than different note-taking units, and the motion of lifting your hand to take a observe alerts the intent of a personal use case, not like different note-takers that may report conversations round you.

Wittenborn additionally thinks among the {hardware} on the market caters to solely “tech bros,” and Sandbar’s kind issue makes it fitted to widespread adoption.

The startup beforehand raised $13 million from True Ventures final November. Sandbar has raised $36 million in funding to this point.