Caine Ardayfio Raised $6.6M For AI Glasses That Can Listen And Transcribe All Conversations – AfroTech
Caine Ardayfio is betting on superintelligence.
The founder began coding in eighth grade after his father introduced him to it. This led him down a rabbit hole of creating various websites and apps, and even learning about ethical hacking. When he was a high school senior, he launched his first startup focused on mental health, inspired by his sister. He even raised $100,000 and hired a small team, he told AFROTECH™ in an interview.
Mira
Today, Ardayfio is focusing on his next move in technology. He has paused his education at Harvard University for Mira, a startup disrupting the wearable technology space with AI glasses that “just sit in on your conversations to help make you smarter throughout the day,” according to Ardayfio.
The company was co-founded with AnhPhu Nguyen, whom Ardayfio met at Harvard’s makerspace. Together, they built projects including flamethrowers, robotic tentacles, and smart glasses, which garnered 80 million views and helped build the foundation for Mira, a press release notes.
Mira, which captures audio but no video, has infinite memory and can provide answers instantly using AI, according to the company website. The technology can translate answers into more than 60 languages in real time, perform instant math, remember everything that has been discussed, and ask follow-up questions, which can appear on the glasses. Conversations can also be stored in the app, which supports all core functions of the glasses with a free version but offers an optional subscription priced at $20 for unlimited AI responses. The glasses don’t have a camera, so they won’t store videos of conversations. The audio is instantly deleted as well, and only transcriptions of the audio are stored.
“We try to make sure it’s as private as possible,” Ardayfio said.
Users can also rely on the app to review their day, find moments instantly, and customize their AI, according to the website. The glasses come with built-in speakers and a ring, which can activate the AI and answer calls. The glasses will function with or without the ring and currently retail for $649 (non-prescription) and $799 (prescription).
So far, the glasses have primarily been purchased by “older customers who are executives or business owners looking to keep track of what’s happening in their meetings.”
Ardayfio told AFROTECH™, “I think with what these glasses do is they let you be much, much closer to the AI systems, where rather than, you know, it just being another browser tab that you go into, it’s literally like a system that’s with you 24/7. It’s with you during all of your conversations, and you’re able to like talk to it and like interface with it much, much faster without even pulling out your phone.”
He continued, “That’s the shift that we’re trying to make with the system. And we’re obviously starting with a lot of business owners and executives who are using this throughout their high-intensity conversations. But we wanna bring this to the masses with time, and I think that’ll come with like the calendar integrations and email.”
Funding
Mira secured $6.6 million in a seed round led by General Catalyst. Ardayfio said the funding has “supercharged” the company’s progress. The investment will support a team of world-class software engineers and machine learning experts who will help with the app, AI systems, and the firmware on the glasses to ensure the system runs smoothly.
“I think that software’s going to be the big thing. The hardware for smart glasses has been around for a while, but the software has always been the part that’s been so bad,” he explained. “I think that’ll be like the real distinguishing factor for us is getting a really great software and AI experience.”
The funding will also support the engineering of the hardware so the glasses can look more consistent in texture and thickness.
Ardayfio shared that his overarching goal is for Mira to become a part of everyone’s daily lives. The first batch will bring 300 glasses to market, and another 1,000 will be released by the end of January. He hopes to have 1 million people become Mira customers within the next three years.
