Cal AI’s 19-year-old founder just raised $10M for his new AI startup

Zach Yadegari, the teenage co-founder of the calorie tracking app Cal AI, has launched a new personal AI agent startup called Persona and raised $10 million. Vine Ventures led the round, with participation from Z Fellows founder Cory Levy and Collective Global.

The launch follows MyFitnessPal's acquisition of Cal AI in March for an undisclosed sum. Cal AI had drawn more than $30 million in annual revenue in under two years, and the deal was large enough that Yadegari and his co-founders agreed to sell. They initially stayed with MyFitnessPal to keep developing Cal AI, but Yadegari left in June and moved on to his next idea. He is working with a co-founder who has not yet been announced.

Persona is a personal AI assistant comparable to Instinct or Meta's Muse, but it adds a hardware component: a $179 wearable band expected to be available in December. An app is also in development. Unlike Bee, the wearable AI device Amazon acquired in 2025, Persona's band is not ambient AI, meaning it does not always listen and record. A button activates the assistant, or it can be configured to start with a flick of the wrist.

According to Yadegari, Persona's AI model does not run on the device and user data is not stored there; the model runs in Persona's cloud and data is sent there. The company says data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and users can delete it. Yadegari says safeguards are built in against phishing and prompt-injection attempts. He also says the agent cannot see credit-card details and that purchases require user approval, with payment handled through external providers such as Stripe Link.

The current business model relies on ads. Yadegari says the company will show advertised wares during shopping research but that the agent will give unbiased recommendations because it will not know which items are advertised. Persona has launched as a free beta in which users interact with the assistant through iMessage, and Yadegari says it has attracted a few thousand beta users. The band has generated five figures in preorder revenue. Like other consumer AI assistants, it can order food or rides, take notes, book travel, and handle questions and emails, among other tasks.

Why it matters: The beta gives users an immediate way to try the assistant through iMessage before the December band ships, while the $179 device and app form a separate paid hardware path.