Sandbar, a startup by former Meta staff Mina Fahmi and Kirak Hong, attracted a lot consideration final yr when it confirmed off its note-taking wearable, the Stream ring. The corporate has now raised $23 million in a Collection 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 will be activated utilizing a flat, touch-sensitive panel on the high. You possibly can maintain this contact panel to file notes, chat with an AI assistant on the accompanying cellphone app, and entry media controls like play, pause, skip tracks, and management the amount.
Notably, the mic on the ring appears to be tuned for proximity, so it’s important to elevate your hand to your face as a way 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 yr following a testing part with associates and early adopters.
“The response [to the launch] was lots hotter than we anticipated, which is actually encouraging and significant,” Fahmi instructed TechCrunch. “Lots of people stated they might see themselves carrying 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 yr, 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 shows, journeys, or meals.
The startup plans to start out transport 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 online platform, bettering its person 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.
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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 critical is forwards and backwards dialog. In contrast to plenty 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 actually good at iterative duties which start, perhaps in dialog or enhancing a notice, however hopefully increase to multi-turn conversations, the place you’re Claude Coding in your terminal and you’re clarifying issues [via voice],” Fahmi stated.
Sandbar’s cellphone 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 staff, 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 affordable $75 ring this yr. Then we have now startups like Taya, that are taking a premium method by designing their merchandise as jewellery to focus on a wider person base.
Adjoining’s Nico Wittenborn has expertise investing in voice-focused startups — he backed Blinkist, which may summarize total books, when he was with Perception Enterprise Companions. He thinks that Sandbar’s Stream has a greater type issue than different note-taking units, and the motion of lifting your hand to take a notice indicators the intent of a non-public use case, not like different note-takers which may file conversations round you.
Wittenborn additionally thinks among the {hardware} on the market caters to solely “tech bros,” and Sandbar’s type issue makes it suited to widespread adoption.
The startup beforehand raised $13 million from True Ventures final November. Sandbar has raised $36 million in funding to this point.
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