The world of artificial intelligence is rapidly expanding beyond screens and into our physical environments, creating a buzz around the next generation of smart devices. At the forefront of this movement is Era AI, a startup dedicated to providing the crucial software layer that powers these innovative AI gadgets. Recently, Era demonstrated its vision by hosting a captivating showcase in New York, unveiling a glimpse into the future of intelligent objects.
In early April 2026, artists who received Era’s developer kit gathered to display their ingenious creations. These experimental mini-gadgets ranged from a quirky souvenir that shares facts and jokes about France, to a personal stock analyst designed to tell you if it’s finally time to quit your job, and even a device monitoring local air quality.
Powering a Cambrian Explosion of AI Gadgets
What unites these diverse, experimental devices is Era’s sophisticated platform, which empowers hardware manufacturers to build AI agents and orchestrations for intelligent devices. Unlike many in the space, Era isn’t interested in creating the gadgets themselves; their mission is to enable others by offering a robust software foundation. This powerful layer can handle complex tasks, such as creating customized voice interactions or embedding intelligence into traditionally “dumb” devices, like a classic pair of headphones.
Era’s CEO, Liz Dorman, articulates a bold vision: to build a platform that fuels the next wave of hardware, fundamentally moving beyond the ubiquitous app model. She believes the inherent capabilities of today’s AI models allow us to completely reimagine the user interface. By replacing the traditional app layer with an “intelligence layer,” Era aims to democratize the creation of intelligent objects and devices.
“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,” Dorman passionately stated. This philosophy underpins Era’s commitment to empowering a diverse range of creators and users, giving them more control over their technology experience.
The Minds and Money Behind Era
Fueling this ambitious endeavor, Era has successfully raised $11 million in funding to date. This includes a significant $9 million seed round, expertly led by Abstract Ventures and BoxGroup, with additional participation from Collaborative Fund and Mozilla Ventures. Prior to this, the company secured $2 million in pre-seed funding from Topology Ventures and Betaworks, establishing a strong financial foundation.
The startup also boasts an impressive roster of individual angel investors, reflecting the industry’s confidence in their vision. These 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
- Poetry Camera creator Kelin Zhang
Era was founded just last year by a formidable team: CEO Liz Dorman, CTO Alex Ollman, and CPO Megan Gole. Their collective experience provides a deep well of expertise crucial for navigating the nascent AI hardware landscape. Dorman previously contributed to AI orchestration at Humane before its acquisition by HP, while Ollman focused on agentic frameworks for enterprises at HP.
Gole brought her experience from Sutter Hill Ventures, where she worked on the high-profile Jony Ive and Sam Altman’s io project, before transitioning to Era. This combination of entrepreneurial drive and deep technical and strategic experience positions Era to tackle complex challenges. Casey Caruso, founder and managing partner at Topology Ventures and an Era investor, highlighted the platform’s unique strengths, noting its dynamic routing across models and its ability to manage real-world constraints like connectivity.
A Platform Built for the Future of Intelligent Objects
Era’s platform offers extensive flexibility, providing access to over 130 large language models (LLMs) from more than 14 providers. This broad compatibility allows hardware manufacturers to power a diverse array of AI gadget form factors, including glasses, jewelry, and even home speakers. As the market evolves and new form factors emerge, Era anticipates a growing demand for a sophisticated software layer that can seamlessly handle multimodal inputs and inference, driving intelligent functionalities across devices.
Dorman enthusiastically predicts a “Cambrian explosion” of possibilities in the world of intelligent hardware. This vision is supported by the increasing commoditization of technology, making it easier than ever for innovators to bring novel devices to life. Era’s platform is not only designed to scale effortlessly across millions of devices, but it also caters to custom AI device experiments, enabling brands to create highly personalized experiences for their users.
Looking ahead, Era is committed to user autonomy and privacy. As AI gadgets become more prevalent, the company plans to empower users to choose their own memory and model providers in a privacy-preserving manner. Furthermore, following its successful artist showcase, Era intends to make its platform available to the open-source and maker communities, fostering widespread innovation and demonstrating the platform’s versatility in powering various types of devices.
Navigating the AI Hardware Landscape
The AI hardware space is notoriously challenging, marked by several high-profile ventures that have struggled to find a sustainable path to success. Companies like Humane were eventually sold to HP, while others like Rabbit have gone quiet. Although startups like Plaud have found niche success in areas like meeting note-taking, and newer players like Sandbar and Taya are still in their early stages, the industry lacks a definitive success story to date.
Despite these past hurdles for others, Era remains optimistic about the future. The team believes that as users continue to discover more practical and compelling use cases for AI devices, certain applications and form factors will undoubtedly resonate and achieve widespread adoption. Era is poised to be the foundational software enabling these breakthroughs, ready to support the next era of intelligent living.
Source: TechCrunch – AI
