Cal AI's 19-year-old founder raises $10M for AI assistant startup Persona

Zach Yadegari, teen co-founder of calorie app Cal AI, launched Persona, a personal AI assistant startup, and raised $10 million led by Vine Ventures. Persona pairs a cloud-based assistant with a $179 wearable band shipping in December, with encrypted data and user-approved purchases.

• $10M round led by Vine Ventures, with Cory Levy and Collective Global participating
• The $179 Persona band ships in December, activated by a button or wrist flick
• The AI model runs in Persona's cloud; data is encrypted and purchases need approval
• The iMessage beta has a few thousand users and five figures in preorder revenue