News
Ultrahuman’s former hardware VP raises $5.5M for devices that control AI agents, not just record you
The race to build the next AI interface is crowded with startups. The Sandbar ring, Plaud’s AI pin and desktop notetaker, and Pocket’s credit card-sized pucks are all vying to capture what you say and do. Bee and Friend take the wearable route, while Meta Ray-Bans and Even Realities are betting on smart glasses. Now, a Bengaluru- and San Francisco-based startup, Aina (“mirror” in Hindi), is trying to make its own mark in this crowded field of human-computer interface devices.
The company announced today that it has raised $5.5 million in a round led by Redstart Labs (Infoedge, India) and 360 ONE, with participation from MIXI Global Investments, Antler, and Blume Founders Fund.
The round also drew individual investors, including newly appointed WhatsApp head Kunal Shah, Razorpay co-founders Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar, and Scribd founder Tikhon Bernstam.
Aina, previously known as Project Mirage, was founded by Apoorv Shankar, a former VP of Hardware at smart ring maker Ultrahuman. Before that, Shankar ran LazyCo, a hardware interface design startup that made gadgets, including a ring that let users control other devices like a smartphone. Ultrahuman later acquired LazyCo, bringing Shankar in-house before he eventually struck out on his own again.
“I left Ultrahuman last year because I was just super curious about the space of AI interfaces,” Shankar told TechCrunch. “Devices like Rabbit and Humane Pin had launched, and I had my own disappointments with them. However, I was just excited that we are seeing interfaces being a thing now. And as an engineer turned product designer, this was the hottest thing I could imagine myself building.”
The startup’s first product is Dune, a three-key, context-aware “macro” keyboard — essentially a small keypad that runs pre-set shortcuts — that can control the mic and camera in a meeting and run shortcuts or scripts based on the app users are viewing.
Aina developed two other devices: Radiance, a tabletop remote for video calls with a dial for volume and buttons for mic, camera, AI notetaker, voice modulation, and joining the meeting; and Shift, a single-tap “agentic” button — press it once, and it triggers an AI agent to carry out a repeated task — that connects to your phone.
But in early testing, Aina found Dune was the most popular of the three and realized it could bundle features of the other two devices into the keypad. That signal from users is why the company decided to ship Dune first. It wants to learn, in the wild, what kind of tasks users actually want to automate.
Aina said lessons from all three devices will feed into its next product. The company isn’t revealing details of its new device yet, but plans to begin testing with a small group of select users in the coming weeks.
Shankar hinted that the new device won’t be a passive “context capture” gadget — the kind of always-listening ring or Plaud-style meeting notetaker that just records what’s happening around you — but rather a device built to control and invoke agents.
“I think you have enough context, you have in your phone and your laptop all the time, and we haven’t even started using that well. We are building an action-oriented device that will use the context to help you control and trigger workflows,” he said.
As more developers and knowledge workers adopt AI coding tools like Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex, there has been a steady rise in hardware built specifically to control and trigger those agents. Just this week, OpenAI released a custom keypad for Codex made with Work Louder. Plenty of other options exist too, ranging from keyboard makers to DIY enthusiasts building their own macro controllers.
There are also reports that OpenAI is developing a smart speaker with a built-in AI assistant, and Rabbit R1 has positioned itself as another device for invoking AI agents. Qualcomm, meanwhile, says it’s experimenting with more than 40 devices to interact with AI. With no clear winner yet on form factor — ring, pin, glasses, keypad, or speaker — expect a wave of new hardware bets, and funding rounds, chasing the same question: what does controlling AI actually look like?
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A moment of exchange between Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma and his predecessor, Rochas Okorocha, during the APC presidential campaign rally has drawn public attention.
In a video circulating online, Okorocha is heard calling out to Uzodimma, asking, “Governor Hope, didn’t you see me?” apparently suggesting that the governor had failed to acknowledge or greet him.
Uzodimma, however, responded, “You’re a small boy,” amid handshakes and laughter.
The exchange, which appeared to be friendly banter and a light-hearted greeting, comes days after the Federal High Court in Abuja nullified Uzodimma’s emergence as the APC candidate for Imo West Senatorial District in the 2027 elections and declared Okorocha the winner of the party’s May 18 senatorial primary.
See video
‘Governor Hope, didn’t you see me? — You’re a small boy’
– Moment Governor Hope Uzodimma and former Governor Rochas Okorocha took digs at each other during the APC presidential campaign rally.
Lol 😂 https://t.co/Ph6vUkFNLx
— Emma ik Umeh (Tcee )🇳🇬 (@emmaikumeh) November 4, 2026
“You’re a small boy” — Uzodimma jokes with Okorocha at APC rally [VIDEO]
MTN Nigeria Communications Plc has appointed five new directors to its board as part of efforts to strengthen its operations and support the company’s growth and strategic direction.
The appointees include former Etisalat Nigeria executives, Ibrahim Dikko and Boye Olusanya, who were appointed as independent non-executive directors to the board of the telecommunication company.
The telco giant also appointed corporate governance expert Fabian Ajogwu, Imoni Akpofure and Lwazi Bam as non-executive directors.
The appointments, which take effect from 1 December were disclosed in a regulatory filing signed by the company’s secretary, Uto Ukpanah, on Tuesday.
MTN Nigeria said the new directors were expected to bring their experience and expertise to strengthen the telco giant’s operations.
“The new Directors are expected to bring their wealth of experience and expertise to enhance Board operations and contribute to the Company’s growth and future direction,” MTN Nigeria said.
Profiles
Mr Dikko brings more than three decades of experience spanning banking, telecommunications, information and communications technology, and regulatory advisory.
He served as chairman of First Securities Discount House Limited from 2002 to 2012 and was vice president of regulatory and corporate affairs at EMTS Limited, which operated as Etisalat Nigeria, from 2007 to 2017.
He holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Buckingham and a Master of Laws degree from Queen Mary and Westfield College, and University of London.
Mr Dikko is a Fellow of the Society of Corporate Governance Nigeria and a Member of the Institute of Directors, Nigeria.
Boye Olusanya
Mr Olusanya, who currently leads FMN Holdings Limited, has more than 25 years of executive leadership experience across the fast-moving consumer goods, agriculture, telecommunications, technology, energy, infrastructure and financial services sectors.
He has led the strategic transformation of FMN Holdings into a vertically integrated, consumer-focused food and agro-industrial business.
MTN Nigeria said Mr Olusanya’s experience includes enterprise transformation, business restructuring, strategic acquisitions, operational turnaround and regional expansion.
Fabian Ajogwu
Mr Ajogwu is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and professor of corporate governance at Lagos Business School. He is also the senior partner at KENNA LP and has practised law for 35 years.
He assisted the Securities and Exchange Commission in drafting Nigeria’s first Code of Corporate Governance and served on the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria committee that worked on the National Code of Corporate Governance 2018.
Mr Ajogwu is also the founder of the Society for Corporate Governance Nigeria and has authored several books on corporate governance.
He holds a PhD in Law from the University of Aberdeen, an MBA from IESE Business School in Barcelona and law degrees from the University of Nigeria and the University of Lagos.
Imoni Akpofure
Ms Akpofure brings nearly three decades of experience in finance, infrastructure and sustainability, particularly across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Her career includes senior roles at the International Finance Corporation, CDC Group, now known as British International Investment, and KINA Advisory.
She currently serves on the boards of Africa50 and the Development Bank of Nigeria, where she brings experience in infrastructure investment, sustainable growth and corporate governance.
Lwazi Bam
Mr Bam joined MTN Group as group chief risk officer in June. Before joining the telecommunications group, he served as chief executive officer of Deloitte Africa and Deloitte Southern Africa from 2012 to 2022.
READ ALSO: Access Holdings’ nine-month profit jumps 6% to N474.2 billion
During his nearly three decades at Deloitte, he also served on the firm’s Global Executive Committee and advised organisations on mergers and acquisitions, strategy, governance and risk oversight.
Between 2022 and 2026, he served as a non-executive director on the boards of Standard Bank Group and Valterra Platinum. He currently serves on the boards of Woolworths Holdings Limited and ZEDA Limited.
Mr Bam is a chartered accountant in South Africa and completed the Advanced Management Programme at Harvard Business School.
MTN Nigeria, one of Africa’s largest providers of communications services, connects over 94 million people in communities across the country.
Launched in 2001, the telco operates in 19 markets in Africa and the Middle East, serving over 300 million people.
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