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

What happened: Zach Yadegari, co-founder of Cal AI, launched Persona, an AI agent startup, and raised $10 million led by Vine Ventures, with Cory Levy and Collective Global participating. Key numbers: $10M raised. Cal AI pulled in over $30M in annual revenue in under two years before MyFitnessPal acquired it in March. Why it matters: Persona enters a crowded assistant market alongside Instinct, Meta's Muse, and Amazon-acquired Bee, differentiating through a button-activated band, cloud-run models, encryption, and an ad-based model where the agent does not know which results are sponsored.

Zach Yadegari, co-founder of Cal AI, launched Persona, an AI agent startup, and raised $10 million led by Vine Ventures, with Cory Levy and Collective Global participating.

Persona enters a crowded assistant market alongside Instinct, Meta's Muse, and Amazon-acquired Bee, differentiating through a button-activated band, cloud-run models, encryption, and an ad-based model where the agent does not know which results are sponsored.