According to TechCrunch, Zach Yadegari, the 19-year-old co-founder of Cal AI, has launched a new AI agent startup called Persona and secured $10 million in funding. This funding round was led by Vine Ventures, with participation from Cory Levy, founder of Z Fellows, and Collective Global. Previously, Cal AI achieved annual revenues exceeding $30 million in less than two years and was acquired by MyFitnessPal in March of this year. After leaving in June, Yadegari founded Persona, positioning it as a personal AI assistant, similar to Instinct or Meta's Muse, but with the addition of hardware—a wearable wristband priced at $179. The wristband prioritizes privacy, as it does not continuously listen and requires activation via a button or wrist gesture. Persona has already launched a free beta version on iMessage, and pre-order revenues for the wristband have reached tens of thousands of dollars, with the official product expected to launch in December.