Mina Fahmi was working as a program manager at Meta when she became fascinated with the arrival of major language genres. But while he was excited by the rapid progress of AI, something about his interaction with the technology didn’t feel right. Fahmi wanted to be able to easily communicate ideas while traveling in New York City and engage with AI assistants who could feel like friends or colleagues. So, he decided to create a solution himself. That idea led to Sandbar, the startup behind the AI-integrated streaming ring.
The company’s soft, voice-responsive rings—which can answer questions or take notes through an app—will ship this summer. The company today (March 1o) announced a $23 million Series A round led by Adjacent and Kindred Ventures. Although Sandbar does not disclose its valuation, the funds will help grow its team and further its mission of serving as a bridge between people and machines.
“I never wanted technology to replace people,” Fahmi, CEO of Sandbar, told the Observer. “I wanted it to be an extension of my thoughts.”
Fahmi co-founded Sandbar with Kirak Hong, the company’s chief technology officer. The pair share roots in human-computer interaction and interface design and launched Sandbar out of the blue last year. Fahmi previously worked at neurotech firm Kernel and augmented reality firm Magic Leap, while Hong worked at Google. The two met at CTRL-Labs, a neural interface startup that Meta acquired in 2019, where they worked together for nearly 4 years.
“What we’ve learned using the interfaces at CTRL-Labs and Meta is that if you reduce the tension to share what’s on your mind, you can do things you couldn’t do before,” said Fahmi. That idea underpins the Broadcast ring’s design: it allows users to capture thoughts seamlessly even in noisy environments, where whispers can be heard. People might use it to check off grocery lists, jot down quick notes, or organize ideas into drafts.
The ring’s voice assistant can be customized to sound like the user and can be easily interrupted by tapping. “To say ‘you’ reduces tension, as if you are thinking about yourself,” said Fahmi.
The streaming rings are available for pre-order in silver ($249) or gold ($299), with shipping beginning this summer. There’s no mandatory subscription, but users get a free three-month trial of Stream Pro, which unlocks unlimited notes and chats and normally costs $10 a month.
With its new funding, the New York City-based startup—already backed by True Ventures, Upfront Ventures and Betaworks—plans to expand its 15-person team, adding software and machine learning experts. Looking ahead, Sandbar aims to transform Stream from a memory resource into an actionable AI tool.
“We see a unique opportunity for broadcasting to be the way you think, remember, and distribute work among things that work for you,” said Fahmi.
Sandbar’s startup comes at an important time for wearable technology, as investors rush to capitalize on increasingly personal AI Historically, the segment has attracted. less than 1 percent of corporate financingaccording to Crunchbase. But that is changing fast. Last year, Finnish smart ring maker Oura raised $900 million at an $11 billion valuation, while Dubai’s Xpanceo brought in $250 million for smart contact lenses, valued at $1.35 billion.
Big tech players are also getting involved. Meta is developing its smart glasses with EssilorLuxottica and, by 2025, found AI Limitless pendant maker. Amazon bought Bee, known for its AI-enhanced bracelets, while OpenAI partnered with Apple’s legendary designer Jony Ive a private wearables project.
This increase in activity emphasizes, as Fahmi sees it, that even with the amazing capabilities of AI, technology itself still needs better ways to integrate into human life. “There are these amazing new skills, but they don’t feel right,” she said. “Usually, when a new computing method came along, a new way of using that method was needed to make it fully usable.”
