A startup called Era has raised $11 million to build what it calls the intelligence layer for the next generation of AI-powered hardware devices. Instead of building gadgets itself, Era provides the software platform that lets hardware makers create AI agents, voice interfaces, and smart orchestrations for devices ranging from glasses and jewelry to home speakers and wearable pendants.
What Era Actually Does
Era's platform provides over 130 large language models from more than 14 providers, giving hardware makers a unified software layer that handles multimodal inputs, AI inference, custom voice creation, and dynamic model routing. A hardware company building AI glasses, for example, can use Era's platform instead of building its own AI backend from scratch.
The key technical differentiator, according to investor Casey Caruso of Topology Ventures, is Era's ability to dynamically route across different AI models while managing real-world constraints like intermittent connectivity — a critical challenge for mobile hardware that cannot always rely on a stable internet connection.
The company held a developer showcase in New York earlier this month where artists demonstrated gadgets built on the platform, including a souvenir that tells jokes about France, a phone-like device that monitors your stocks and tells you whether today is the day you can quit your job, and a gadget that reports on air quality. The devices are experimental, but they illustrate the range of form factors Era's platform can support.
The Team and the Funding
Era was founded by CEO Liz Dorman, CTO Alex Ollman, and CPO Megan Gole. The founding team's background is directly relevant to the AI hardware problem they are trying to solve. Dorman worked at Humane on AI orchestration before transitioning to HP when it acquired Humane's assets for $116 million. Ollman worked at HP on agentic frameworks for enterprises. Gole worked at Sutter Hill Ventures on the Jony Ive and Sam Altman hardware project before joining Era.
The $11 million includes a $9 million seed round led by Abstract Ventures and BoxGroup, with participation from Collaborative Fund and Mozilla Ventures, plus a $2 million pre-seed from Topology Ventures and Betaworks. Angel investors include Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake and iPhone keyboard creator Ken Kocienda.
Learning From Humane's Failure
Era's platform-first approach is a deliberate response to the failures of previous AI hardware companies. Humane, which built the AI Pin wearable, was sold to HP after the product failed to gain traction. Rabbit, which launched a standalone AI device, has gone largely silent. Both companies tried to build integrated hardware and software products — and both struggled.
Dorman's thesis is that the problem was not the concept of AI hardware but the approach. Building both the device and the intelligence layer is extremely difficult and expensive. By providing the software platform and letting others build the hardware, Era avoids the manufacturing risk while positioning itself to benefit from whatever form factors ultimately succeed.
Her vision is explicitly anti-Silicon Valley in tone. She argues that the future of technology should not be dictated by people in San Francisco who are out of touch with reality, and that consumers deserve choice over their devices. Era wants to enable a Cambrian explosion of AI gadgets built by diverse creators — not just Big Tech.
The AI Hardware Landscape
The AI gadget market is still searching for its first genuine hit. Plaud has found moderate success in the meeting note-taking space. Sandbar raised $23 million for an AI note-taking ring. Taya, founded by a former Apple engineer, raised $5 million for a voice-recording pendant. But none has achieved the breakout adoption that would validate AI hardware as a mainstream category.
Era's bet is that the market needs many experiments across many form factors before a winner emerges — and that the company providing the software infrastructure for all those experiments is better positioned than any single device maker. As AI agents become more capable, the argument for embedding them in physical objects rather than confining them to phone screens becomes more compelling.
Beyond the App Model
The most provocative part of Era's pitch is the suggestion that AI gadgets could eventually bypass the smartphone app model entirely. If a device can understand voice commands, process context, and take actions across services without requiring the user to open an app, the entire app ecosystem — which currently generates billions in revenue — could face disruption.
That vision is shared by others in the industry. Nothing CEO Carl Pei has argued that smartphone apps will eventually disappear as AI agents take their place. OpenAI is reportedly building an AI hardware device with Jony Ive. And the rapid growth of AI coding tools that let anyone build software suggests the technology layer is evolving faster than the hardware that runs it.
Whether Era's platform approach succeeds where integrated hardware companies have failed remains to be seen. But the $11 million bet reflects a growing conviction that the next wave of AI will not live in a chatbot window — it will be embedded in the objects around us.
