Zach Yadegari, the 19-year-old co-founder of calorie-tracking app Cal AI, has launched Persona, an AI assistant startup, and raised $10 million in a round led by Vine Ventures. Z Fellows founder Cory Levy and Collective Global also participated. Persona is developing a personal assistant paired with a $179 wearable band, which the company expects to make available in December. A free beta is already available through iMessage, where users interact with the assistant by text; Yadegari said it has attracted “a few thousand beta users.” The band has generated “five figures in preorder revenue.”

MyFitnessPal acquired Cal AI in March for an undisclosed amount after the app surpassed the older calorie-tracking service in app-store rankings. Before the sale, Cal AI had generated more than $30 million in annual revenue in under two years, MyFitnessPal told TechCrunch. Yadegari and his co-founders initially continued developing Cal AI for the buyer, but Yadegari left in June to start Persona. He is working with another co-founder whose identity has not been announced. Before Cal AI, Yadegari started his first business in ninth grade and sold it for $100,000 when he was 16.

Persona’s band will not continuously listen or record, Yadegari said. Users can activate the assistant with a button or set it to respond to a flick of the wrist. The AI model runs in Persona’s cloud rather than on the device, and user data is sent to that cloud. The company says it encrypts data in transit and at rest and lets users delete it. Yadegari said conversations would remain private and would not be sold to advertisers or data brokers.

The company says it is building protections against phishing and prompt injection, attacks that can manipulate an assistant into unsafe actions. Yadegari also said the agent cannot see users’ credit-card details and requires approval before purchases, which would be processed by external providers such as Stripe Link. Persona plans to earn revenue from ads shown during shopping research. Yadegari said the assistant would not know which items are sponsored, and would recommend products based on users’ preferences; some recommendations may be sponsored.

Persona can order food or rides, take notes, book travel, answer questions and handle email, among other tasks, according to Yadegari. The startup has not yet released its planned app. Yadegari said he sees phone utilities such as shopping, Uber, DoorDash and email eventually consolidating into one AI-powered assistant. He also hopes Persona will eventually offer help before users recognize a problem. Yadegari is scheduled to speak at TechCrunch Disrupt, taking place October 13–15 at San Francisco’s Moscone Center.

Zach Yadegari, the 19-year-old co-founder of calorie-tracking app Cal AI, has launched Persona, an AI assistant startup, and raised $10 million in a round led by Vine Ventures. Z Fellows founder Cory Levy and Collective Global also participated. Persona is developing a personal assistant paired with a $179 wearable band, which the company expects to make available in December. A free beta is already available through iMessage, where users interact with the assistant by text; Yadegari said it has attracted “a few thousand beta users.” The band has generated “five figures in preorder revenue.”

MyFitnessPal acquired Cal AI in March for an undisclosed amount after the app surpassed the older calorie-tracking service in app-store rankings. Before the sale, Cal AI had generated more than $30 million in annual revenue in under two years, MyFitnessPal told TechCrunch. Yadegari and his co-founders initially continued developing Cal AI for the buyer, but Yadegari left in June to start Persona. He is working with another co-founder whose identity has not been announced. Before Cal AI, Yadegari started his first business in ninth grade and sold it for $100,000 when he was 16.

Persona’s band will not continuously listen or record, Yadegari said. Users can activate the assistant with a button or set it to respond to a flick of the wrist. The AI model runs in Persona’s cloud rather than on the device, and user data is sent to that cloud. The company says it encrypts data in transit and at rest and lets users delete it. Yadegari said conversations would remain private and would not be sold to advertisers or data brokers.

The company says it is building protections against phishing and prompt injection, attacks that can manipulate an assistant into unsafe actions. Yadegari also said the agent cannot see users’ credit-card details and requires approval before purchases, which would be processed by external providers such as Stripe Link. Persona plans to earn revenue from ads shown during shopping research. Yadegari said the assistant would not know which items are sponsored, and would recommend products based on users’ preferences; some recommendations may be sponsored.

Persona can order food or rides, take notes, book travel, answer questions and handle email, among other tasks, according to Yadegari. The startup has not yet released its planned app. Yadegari said he sees phone utilities such as shopping, Uber, DoorDash and email eventually consolidating into one AI-powered assistant. He also hopes Persona will eventually offer help before users recognize a problem. Yadegari is scheduled to speak at TechCrunch Disrupt, taking place October 13–15 at San Francisco’s Moscone Center.