Former VP of Ultrahuman hardware raises $5.5M for devices that control AI agents, not just record you

The race to build the next AI interface is full of startups. Sandbar’s ring, Plaud’s AI pin and desktop notetaker, and Pocket’s credit card-sized pucks all strive to capture what you say and do. Bee and Friend take a wearable approach, while Meta Ray-Bans and Even Realities bet on smart glasses. Now, a Bengaluru- and San Francisco-based startup, Aina (“mirror” in Hindi), is trying to make its mark in the crowded field of personal computing devices.

The company announced today that it has raised $5.5 million in a round led by Redstart Labs (Infoedge, India) and 360 ONE, with participation from MIXI Global Investments, Antler, and Blume Founders Fund.

The round also attracted individual investors, including newly appointed WhatsApp head Kunal Shah, Razorpay founders Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar, and Scribd founder Tikhon Bernstam.

Aina, formerly known as Project Mirage, was founded by Apoorv Shankar, who was VP of Hardware at smart ring maker Ultrahuman. Before that, Shankar ran LazyCo, a hardware interface design startup that makes gadgets, including a ring that lets users control other devices like a smartphone. The Ultrahuman later found LazyCo, taking Shankar inside the house before he went out again on his own.

“I left Ultrahuman last year because I was curious about the AI ​​space,” Shankar told TechCrunch. “Devices like the Rabbit and the Humane Pin were quiet, and I had my share of disappointments with them. However, I’m just glad we’re seeing workstations become a thing now. And as an engineer turned product designer, this was the hottest thing I could imagine building.”

The first product to launch is Dune, a three-key, context-aware “macros” keyboard — essentially a small keyboard that uses preset shortcuts — that can control the microphone and camera in a meeting and execute shortcuts or scripts based on the program viewed by app users.

Aina developed two other devices: Radiance, a tabletop remote control for video calls with volume dial and mic buttons, camera, AI Notetaker, voice replacement, and meeting joining; and Shift, a one-tap “agent” button — press it once, and it triggers an AI agent to perform a repetitive task — that connects to your phone.

But in early testing, Aina found that the Dune was the most popular of the three and realized that it could combine the features of the other two devices into a keypad. That signal from users is why the company decided to ship Dune first. It wants to learn, in the wild, what kinds of tasks users want to automate.

Aina said the lessons learned from all three devices will feed into its next product. The company has not revealed the details of its new device, but it plans to start testing with a small group of selected users in the coming weeks.

Shankar suggested that the new device would not be a passive “content capture” gadget — a type of always-listening ring or Plaud-style meeting speaker that simply records what’s going on around you — but a device designed to control and persuade agents.

“I think you have enough context, you have your phone and your laptop all the time, and we haven’t started to use that properly. We’re building an action-oriented device that will use context to help you control and trigger your workflow,” he said.

As more developers and information workers adopt AI coding tools like Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex, there has been a steady rise in hardware built to control and trigger those agents. Just this week, OpenAI released a custom Codex keyboard made with Work Louder. There are plenty of other options too, from keyboard builders to DIY enthusiasts building their own giant controllers.

There are also reports that OpenAI is developing a smart speaker with a built-in AI assistant, and the Rabbit R1 has positioned itself as another tool to recruit AI agents. Qualcomm, on the other hand, says it is experimenting with more than 40 devices to communicate with AI. With no clear winner yet in the form factor – ring, pin, glasses, keypad, or speaker – expect a wave of new hardware bets, funding rounds, chasing the same question: what does controlling AI look like?