Key facts
- Aina, a startup focused on AI interfaces, has raised $5.5 million in funding.
- The company was founded by Apoorv Shankar, former VP of Hardware at Ultrahuman.
- Aina's first product, Dune, is a macro keyboard designed to control AI agents and automate tasks.
- The funding round was led by Redstart Labs and 360 ONE, with participation from other investors.
- Aina aims to build action-oriented devices that use context to trigger workflows, rather than passive recording devices.
Aina, a startup aiming to create new hardware interfaces for artificial intelligence, has announced a $5.5 million funding round. The company, founded by Apoorv Shankar, who previously served as the VP of Hardware at Ultrahuman, is developing devices that go beyond simply recording user interactions to actively controlling AI agents.
The funding was led by Redstart Labs and 360 ONE, with contributions from MIXI Global Investments, Antler, and Blume Founders Fund. Notable individual investors include Kunal Shah, the new head of WhatsApp, along with Razorpay co-founders Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar, and Scribd founder Tikhon Bernstam.
Shankar left Ultrahuman with a strong curiosity about AI interfaces, inspired by early devices like the Rabbit R1 and Humane Pin, but also noting their limitations. Aina's initial product, Dune, is a compact, context-aware macro keyboard featuring three keys designed to manage meeting controls like microphones and cameras, and to execute shortcuts or scripts based on the user's active application. The company also developed Radiance, a tabletop remote for video calls, and Shift, a button for triggering AI agents to perform repetitive tasks.
Early testing indicated Dune's popularity, leading Aina to prioritize its launch. The company plans to learn from real-world user behavior to refine its automation strategies. Shankar emphasized that Aina's future products will be action-oriented, leveraging context to trigger workflows rather than passively capturing information. This focus aligns with a growing trend of hardware designed to interact with and control AI agents, particularly as AI coding tools become more prevalent.