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

Sandbar, a startup by erstwhile Meta employees Mina Fahmi and Kirak Hong, attracted overmuch attraction past twelvemonth erstwhile it showed disconnected its note-taking wearable, the Stream ring. The institution has present raised $23 cardinal successful a Series A backing circular led by Adjacent and Kindred Ventures.

The company’s astute ringing is focused connected note-taking, akin to products by Plaud oregon Omi, and not health-tracking similar Oura’s products. The ringing has a microphone that’s disconnected by default, but tin beryllium activated utilizing a flat, touch-sensitive sheet astatine the top. You tin clasp this interaction sheet to grounds notes, chat with an AI adjunct connected the accompanying telephone app, and entree media controls similar play, pause, skip tracks, and power the volume.

Notably, the mic connected the ringing seems to beryllium tuned for proximity, truthful you person to assistance your manus to your look successful bid to instrumentality notes.

Image Credits:Sandbar /

Fahmi, who antecedently worked astatine startups similar CTRL-Labs and Magic Leap, said Sandbar has been moving connected the ringing for implicit 2 years, earlier coming retired of stealth past twelvemonth pursuing a investigating signifier with friends and aboriginal adopters.

“The effect [to the launch] was a batch warmer than we expected, which is truly encouraging and meaningful,” Fahmi told TechCrunch. “A batch of radical said they could spot themselves wearing this.”

Fahmi said the startup is seeing promising traction from its aboriginal users, with the archetypal batch of pre-orders for the ringing selling retired past year, which spurred Sandbar to unfastened up a 2nd batch to conscionable demand. He said immoderate users usage the ringing implicit 50 times a time for tasks similar readying presentations, trips oregon meals.

The startup plans to commencement shipping the astute ringing this summer. Sandbar said it is focusing connected refining its app acquisition and what users tin bash with their recorded notes. The institution is moving connected a web platform, improving its idiosyncratic interface, and reducing the latency of exemplary responses. In the agelong term, the institution wants to alteration agentic workflows to alteration users to instrumentality enactment utilizing their notes.

Fahmi pointed retired that Sandbar is moving connected implementing conversational exchanges into its product, arsenic galore of its users inquire the app’s AI adjunct astir notes they didn’t negociate to implicit recording.

“Something that we deliberation is indispensable is backmost and distant conversation. Unlike a batch of experiences wherever you conscionable accidental 1 bid and it’s either transcribed oregon acted upon, like, via a astute speaker, Stream is truly bully astatine iterative tasks which begin, possibly successful speech oregon editing a note, but hopefully grow to multi-turn conversations, wherever you’re Claude Coding successful your terminal and you are clarifying things [via voice],” Fahmi said.

Sandbar’s telephone app presently lone works with the Stream ring, but the institution said it is considering opening up entree to radical who don’t ain the ring. The app tin beryllium utilized connected its ain to instrumentality notes successful lawsuit the ringing is charging oregon has been misplaced.

Sandbar presently has 15 employees, who person antecedently worked astatine companies similar Amazon, Fitbit, Equinox, Google, and Apple. With the caller fundraising, it plans to treble its bundle and instrumentality learning teams, and prosecute selling staff.

The class of hardware devices for notetaking is growing. Companies similar Plaud are producing devices that tin instrumentality notes for meetings, and Pebble aims to vessel a inexpensive $75 ringing this year. Then we person startups similar Taya, which are taking a premium attack by designing their products arsenic jewelry to people a wider idiosyncratic base.

Adjacent’s Nico Wittenborn has acquisition successful investing successful voice-focused startups — helium backed Blinkist, which tin summarize full books, erstwhile helium was with Insight Venture Partners. He thinks that Sandbar’s Stream has a amended signifier origin than different note-taking devices, and the enactment of lifting your manus to instrumentality a enactment signals the intent of a backstage usage case, dissimilar different note-takers that mightiness grounds conversations astir you.

Wittenborn besides thinks immoderate of the hardware retired determination caters to lone “tech bros,” and Sandbar’s signifier origin makes it suited for wide adoption.

The startup antecedently raised $13 cardinal from True Ventures past November. Sandbar has raised $36 cardinal successful backing to date.