AI wearable startup Sandbar has raised $23 million in Sequence A funding because it prepares to launch a voice-enabled sensible ring designed to assist customers seize concepts, organise notes, and work together with synthetic intelligence on the go.
The New York-based firm introduced the funding this week, with the spherical led by Adjoining and Kindred Ventures.
The funding brings Sandbar’s complete funding to $36 million following a $10 million seed spherical led by True Ventures in early 2025 and a $3 million pre-seed spherical backed by Upfront Ventures and Betaworks in 2024.
Sandbar plans to make use of the brand new funding to broaden its engineering and product groups and speed up growth of its first system, the Stream ring, forward of a deliberate summer time 2026 launch.
The corporate describes Stream as a wearable conversational interface that mixes a {hardware} ring with AI-powered software program to assist customers assume via concepts, seize notes, and retrieve data with out counting on a smartphone.
“We consider in self augmentation in an agentic world,” stated Mina Fahmi, co-founder and CEO of Sandbar.
“With the fitting interface, everybody ought to have the ability to develop concepts and get issues achieved wherever they’re, with the pace, privateness, and ease of pondering.”
A Ring Designed for Voice Interplay
The Stream ring integrates a touchpad, private microphone, and haptic suggestions system right into a compact wearable kind issue.
Customers activate the microphone by holding the contact panel, permitting them to report notes, ask questions, or work together with the system’s AI-powered interface.
These interactions are then processed via a companion cell utility that organises recorded content material, retrieves data from the online, and generates responses utilizing a number of AI fashions.
In line with Sandbar, the system is designed to permit customers to seize ideas and construct on concepts with out interrupting their workflow.
The system differs from conventional voice assistants by requiring customers to intentionally activate the microphone. As an alternative of listening repeatedly for a wake phrase, Stream solely information when the contact panel is pressed.
“In contrast to AI companions, Stream is designed with out an identification of its personal,” the corporate stated in a press release.
“It remembers what you share, listens solely once you maintain the button to talk — even at a whisper — and makes use of a number of AI fashions to organise, reply, and search the online in actual time.”
The corporate says this strategy is meant to provide customers extra management over when audio is captured whereas retaining interactions fast and unobtrusive.
From Neural Interfaces to AI {Hardware}
Sandbar was based by Mina Fahmi and Kirak Hong, who beforehand labored collectively at CTRL-labs, a neural interface startup acquired by Meta in 2019.
At CTRL-labs, the pair labored on know-how designed to translate human intent into digital actions, together with analysis that contributed to Meta’s neural wristband initiatives.
That have helped form Sandbar’s deal with constructing new interfaces for interacting with computing methods extra naturally.
The corporate at the moment employs round 15 individuals with backgrounds in client know-how and product design. Crew members have beforehand labored on units together with the iPhone, Imaginative and prescient Professional, Fitbit, and Kindle.
Sandbar has additionally introduced in a number of new senior hires because it prepares for launch, together with Sam Bowen as vp of {hardware} and Brooke Travis as vp of selling.
Getting into a Rising AI Wearables Market
Sandbar’s Stream ring enters an more and more lively marketplace for AI-powered {hardware} designed to seize spoken data and assist conversational interplay with digital assistants.
Advances in generative AI and speech recognition have prompted a wave of startups to discover new system classes constructed particularly for AI interplay.
Some corporations are specializing in devoted note-taking units able to recording conferences and producing summaries. Others are experimenting with wearable codecs that combine microphones and sensors into equipment comparable to pins, glasses, and rings.
Sensible rings, particularly, have grown in recognition in recent times, primarily as well being and wellness units that monitor sleep, exercise, and biometrics.
Sandbar’s system takes a special strategy by specializing in voice interplay and thought seize fairly than well being knowledge.
By turning the ring right into a voice interface for AI, the corporate hopes to make it simpler for customers to report ideas, brainstorm concepts, and entry data whereas shifting via their day.
Getting ready for Launch
Sandbar plans to launch a closed beta program within the coming months to refine the Stream software program expertise earlier than the {hardware} ships later this 12 months.
The beta will even introduce a characteristic known as Interior Voice, which the corporate says will enable the system to reply utilizing a voice personalised to the consumer.
Pre-orders for the Stream ring are already open, with early demand reportedly sturdy. In line with the corporate, the primary batch of pre-orders has bought out, with a second batch now out there forward of the summer time delivery window.
With contemporary funding secured and growth underway, Sandbar is betting that wearable AI interfaces might signify a brand new path in how individuals work together with know-how, enabling quicker and extra pure methods to seize concepts and interact with synthetic intelligence all through the day.
