Aina
Summary active Updated Jul 19, 2026This profile is AI-generated. If you spot an error, please help us fix it by sharing a URL to the correct information.
Founders
About
Aina is a consumer hardware company building physical interfaces for the AI-agent era — devices meant to command and control AI agents rather than passively record the user 12. Founder and CEO Apoorv Shankar previously served as Vice President of Hardware at smart-ring maker Ultrahuman, where he led hardware for the Ultrahuman Ring 1. Incorporated in May 2025, the company operated as a Human-Computer Interaction lab under the codename “Project Mirage” before rebranding to Aina 12. Its first product, Dune, is a context-aware three-key macropad for Mac whose functions automatically adapt to whichever application is in the foreground 1.
On 2026-07-16, Aina announced a $5.5 million seed round co-led by Redstart Labs (the venture arm of Info Edge India) and 360 ONE, with participation from MIXI Global Investments, Antler, and Blume Founders Fund 123. The round also drew individual investors including Kunal Shah (CRED founder), Razorpay co-founders Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar, and Scribd founder Tikhon Bernstam 13. Aina operates from both Bengaluru and San Francisco 1.
Disclaimer: This is a lean profile built from initial round coverage and may be expanded as more information becomes available.
Funding History
| Date | Round | Amount | Lead | Co-investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-07-16 | Seed | $5.5M | Redstart Labs, 360 ONE | MIXI Global Investments, Antler, Blume Founders Fund, Kunal Shah, Harshil Mathur, Shashank Kumar, Tikhon Bernstam 123 |
What Investors Say
No independently sourced investor quotes found at this time.
What Founders Say
“I left Ultrahuman last year because I was just super curious about the space of AI interfaces… this was the hottest thing I could imagine myself building.”
— Apoorv Shankar, Founder & CEO, Aina, in TechCrunch 1
Sources
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Manish Singh, “Ultrahuman’s former hardware VP raises $5.5M for devices that control AI agents, not just record you,” TechCrunch, July 16, 2026. Accessed July 19, 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/16/ultrahumans-former-hardware-vp-raises-5-5m-for-devices-that-control-ai-agents-not-just-record-you/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
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“Aina raises $5.5M with new hardware interface for the age of AI beyond touchscreens and keyboards,” GlobeNewswire, July 16, 2026. Accessed July 19, 2026. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/07/16/3328464/0/en/aina-raises-5-5m-with-new-hardware-interface-for-the-age-of-ai-beyond-touchscreens-and-keyboards.html↩↩↩↩
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“Ex-Ultrahuman Exec raises $5.5M for Aina, a new hardware interface for the age of AI beyond touchscreens and keyboards,” Intelligence360 News, July 16, 2026. Accessed July 19, 2026. https://www.intelligence360.news/ex-ultrahuman-exec-raises-5-5m-for-aina-a-new-hardware-interface-for-the-age-of-ai-beyond-touchscreens-and-keyboards/↩↩↩