The AI gadget wave needs software. Era just raised $11M to supply it
Era has raised $11M to date, including a $9M seed round led by Abstract Ventures and BoxGroup, for a platform that lets hardware makers build AI agents across glasses, rings and speakers.
Era doesn't want to build your next AI gadget. It wants to build the software layer that lets someone else build it.
The company has raised $11 million in funding to date, including a $9 million seed round led by Abstract Ventures and BoxGroup, with participation from Collaborative Fund and Mozilla Ventures. Era previously raised $2 million in pre-seed funding from Topology Ventures and Betaworks. Individual angel investors include Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake, iPhone keyboard creator Ken Kocienda, OAS founder Tony Wang, Little Guy co-founder Daniel Kuntz, Sandbar co-founder Mina Fahmi, former Rabbit CPO ShaoBo Z, and Poetry Camera creator Kelin Zhang.
Era's platform lets hardware makers create AI agents and orchestrations for AI devices, handling tasks such as customized voice creation or adding intelligence to a classic device like headphones. The company provides more than 130 LLMs from over 14 providers, aimed at form factors including glasses, jewelry, and home speakers. CEO Liz Dorman said the platform is built to scale across millions of devices, and can serve custom AI device experiments that brands might run to appeal to particular users.
The startup was founded last year by Dorman, CTO Alex Ollman, and CPO Megan Gole. Dorman worked at Humane on AI orchestration and transitioned to HP as part of the company's acquisition. Ollman worked at HP on agentic frameworks for enterprises, and Gole worked at Sutter Hill Ventures on the Jony Ive and Sam Altman io project before moving to Era.
Earlier in April, Era held a gathering in New York for artists who had received its developer kit. The projects on display included a souvenir that tells facts and jokes about France, a phone-like device that looks at your stocks and tells you if today is the day you can quit your job, and a gadget that reports air quality. Era plans to make its platform available to the open source and maker community to show the range of devices it can power. Its longer-term ambition is to let users choose their own memory and model providers in a privacy-preserving way.
The AI hardware market has yet to produce a clear winner. Humane was sold to HP, and Rabbit has been silent. Plaud has found some success in meeting note-taking, while startups such as Sandbar and Taya are early. Era's view is that as users encounter more use cases for AI devices, some will stick with them.
Casey Caruso, founder and managing partner at Topology Ventures, said Era's orchestration platform stands out because of its dynamic routing across models and its handling of real-world constraints like connectivity.
Dorman frames the bet as a break from the app era. "I think one of the incredible things that we can do with these AI models today is that you can replace that app layer," she said. "So what we're building is the intelligence layer to allow anyone to create these types of intelligent objects, intelligent devices." She added that the future of tech "should not be made by people in San Francisco," and that "I want a choice over my devices again."
I think one of the incredible things that we can do with these AI models today is that you can replace that app layer. So what we're building is the intelligence layer to allow anyone to create these types of intelligent objects, intelligent devices. And what we really believe is that the future of tech should not be made by people in San Francisco…It should not be people in their high fortresses who are so out of touch with reality, making devices and forcing them onto everyone. I want a choice over my devices again.