Sandbara startup by former Meta employees Mina Fahmi and Kirak Hong, drew a lot of attention last year when it showed off its note-taking wearable, the Stream ring. The company has now raised $23 million in a Series A funding round led by Adjacent and Kindred Ventures.
The company’s smart ring focuses on note-taking, similar to products from Plaud or Omi, rather than health monitoring like Oura’s products. The ring has a microphone that is disabled by default, but can be enabled using a flat, touch-sensitive panel on top. You can hold this touch panel to record notes, chat with an AI assistant in the companion phone app, and access media controls like play, pause, skip tracks, and volume control.
Notably, the microphone on the ring appears to be tuned for proximity, so you have to raise your hand to your face to take notes.
Fahmi, who previously worked at startups like CTRL-Labs and Magic Leap, said Sandbar has been working on the ring for more than two years, before coming out of stealth last year after a testing phase with friends and early adopters.
“The answer [to the launch] it was much warmer than we expected, which is really encouraging and makes sense,” Fahmi told TechCrunch. “A lot of people said they could see themselves wearing this.”
Fahmi said the startup is seeing promising traction from its early adopters, with the first batch of pre-orders for the ring selling out last year, prompting Sandbar to open a second batch to meet demand. He said some users use the ring more than 50 times a day for tasks such as planning presentations, tours or meals.
The startup plans to start shipping the smart ring this summer. Sandbar said it is focusing on improving the app experience and what users can do with their recorded notes. The company is working on an online platform, improving its user interface and reducing the latency of model responses. Longer term, the company wants to enable agent workflows to allow users to take action using their notes.
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Fahmi pointed out that Sandbar is working on implementing chat exchanges in its product, as many of its users ask the app’s AI assistant for notes that they couldn’t finish recording.
“Something we think is necessary is the discussion. [via voice]Fahmi said.
Sandbar’s phone app currently only works with the Stream ring, but the company said it’s considering opening up access to people who don’t own the ring. The app can be used on its own to take notes in case the ring is charging or misplaced.
Sandbar currently has 15 employees, who have previously worked at companies such as Amazon, Fitbit, Equinox, Google and Apple. With the new fundraising, it plans to double its software and machine learning teams and hire marketing staff.
The category of hardware devices for taking notes is growing. Companies like Plaud make devices that can take notes for meetings, and Pebble aims to ship a cheap $75 ring this year. Then we have startups like Tayawhich take a premium approach by designing their products as jewelry to target a wider user base.
Adjacent’s Nico Wittenborn has experience investing in voice-focused startups — he backed Blinkist, which can summarize entire books, when he was with Insight Venture Partners. He believes Sandbar’s Stream has a better form factor than other note-taking devices, and the act of raising your hand to take a note signals the intent of a private-use case, unlike other note-takers that might be recording conversations around you.
Wittenborn also believes that some of the hardware out there only appeals to “tech bros,” and the Sandbar’s form factor makes it suitable for widespread adoption.
The startup previously raised $13 million from True Ventures last November. Sandbar has raised $36 million in funding to date.
