Cal AI’s 19-year-old founder lands $10M for new AI venture
Zach Yadegari, the teenage co-founder of Cal AI, has raised $10 million for Persona, a new AI assistant startup. The funding comes after MyFitnessPal acquired Cal AI, which surpassed MyFitnessPal in app store rankings and generated more than $30 million in annual revenue within two years. Yadegari left Cal AI to build Persona, a personal AI assistant with a $179 wearable band scheduled to ship in December. Unlike always-listening wearables, Persona uses button or wrist activation, cloud-based models, encrypted data storage, user data deletion, and protections against phishing and prompt injection. The agent can order food, rides, notes, travel, and handle emails. Its business model includes sponsored product recommendations during shopping research. Persona already has a free iMessage beta with thousands of users and five-figure preorder revenue, aiming toward a broader AI super app.
Key Takeaways
- Zach Yadegari, the 19-year-old co-founder of calorie-tracking app Cal AI, has raised $10 million for Persona, a new AI agent startup founded after MyFitnessPal acquired Cal AI.
- Persona is a personal AI assistant with a $179 wearable band expected to ship in December, positioning itself alongside products such as Instinct and Meta’s Muse.
- The wearable avoids always-listening ambient recording, activates through a button or wrist flick, and relies on encrypted cloud-based AI rather than storing models or user data on the device.
- Persona includes privacy and security safeguards against phishing, prompt-injection attacks, and unauthorized purchases, requiring user approval and using external payment providers such as Stripe Link.
- The company’s current business model relies on advertising during shopping research, while its long-term vision is an AI-powered super app that integrates everyday services and eventually acts proactively for users.
Zach Yadegari, who co-founded the calorie tracking app Cal AI as a teenager, has raised $10 million for a new AI agent startup called Persona. Vine Ventures led the round, with participation from Z Fellows founder Cory Levy and Collective Global. The funding arrives just months after MyFitnessPal acquired Cal AI for an undisclosed sum in March, a deal that followed Cal AI surpassing the older calorie app in app store rankings and pulling in over $30 million in annual revenue in under two years.
From Cal AI Exit to a New Venture
After the acquisition, Yadegari and his co-founders initially stayed on to continue developing Cal AI for MyFitnessPal. But Yadegari left the company in June and moved directly to his next project, working with a co-founder who has not yet been announced. That project is Persona, a personal AI assistant comparable to Instinct or Meta's Muse, but distinguished by a hardware component: a $179 wearable band expected to ship in December.
How the Persona Band Handles Privacy
The band is designed to avoid the always-listening model associated with some wearable AI devices. Rather than running ambient AI that continuously records, the Persona band activates through a button press or a flick of the wrist. According to Yadegari, the AI model does not run on the device and user data is not stored there either. Instead, the model operates in Persona's cloud, with data encrypted in transit and at rest. Users can delete their data, and the company says conversations cannot be sold to advertisers or data brokers.
The team is also building safeguards against phishing and prompt-injection attacks, two problem areas for AI agents that labs like OpenAI have flagged. Yadegari says Persona's agent cannot see a user's credit-card details, and purchases require user approval, with payment handled through external providers such as Stripe Link, Stripe's secure wallet designed for agent use.
Ads, Beta Testing, and What Comes Next
Despite the privacy positioning, Persona's current business model relies on advertising. Yadegari says the company will show sponsored products during shopping research, but claims the agent will not know which items are advertised, allowing it to present unbiased recommendations. For example, someone researching office chairs would see options matching their stated preferences, some of them sponsored.
The product is already live in a limited form: a free beta where users interact with the assistant through iMessage text messages. It has attracted "a few thousand beta users," according to Yadegari, and the band has generated "five figures in preorder revenue." Like other consumer AI assistants, Persona can order food or rides, take notes, book travel, and handle questions and emails. Yadegari's longer-term vision is a single AI-powered super app that absorbs everyday utilities like shopping, Uber, DoorDash, and email — and eventually an assistant proactive enough to solve problems before users notice them.
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