Cal AI’s 19-year-old founder just raised $10M for his new AI startup
Zach Yadegari, the founder of Cal AI, has raised $10 million for his new startup, Persona, which focuses on personal AI agents. The company plans to release a wearable device that prioritizes user privacy by processing data in the cloud rather than on-device.
Why it matters
The rapid funding of AI agent startups highlights the growing investor interest in personal AI hardware and privacy-focused consumer technology.
Zach Yadegari, the teen co-founder of calorie tracking app Cal AI, has launched Persona , a new AI agent startup, and already raised $10 million. Vine Ventures led the round, with Z Fellows founder Cory Levy and Collective Global participating.
In March, MyFitnessPal acquired Cal AI for an undisclosed sum after it zoomed ahead of the older calorie app in the app store rankings. The deal was big enough to convince Yadegari and his co-founders to sell the company after it had pulled in over $30 million in annual revenue in under two years, MyFitnessPal told TechCrunch at the time.
Yadegari and his co-founders originally went to work for their new owner, continuing development on Cal AI, but he left the bigger company in June, he tells TechCrunch. He then went right to work on his next idea. (He is working with another co-founder who has yet to be announced.)
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