Sandbar has now closed a $23 million Series A funding round, which gives the company a total funding of $36 million. The recent $5.2 million funding round, led by Adjacent and Kindred Ventures, is accelerating development of Sandbar’s flagship product. Look forward to Stream smart ring taking a big step in the direction! With the innovative technology, the company hopes to change the way you take notes and control your music.
Founded just two years ago, Sandbar had raised $13 million from True Ventures back in November 2022. Sandbar is lucky enough to have the most amazing crew of 15 employees. Their resumes boast experience from notable organizations such as Amazon, Fitbit, Equinox, Google, and Apple, uniquely positioning Sandbar to further develop their products for success.
On the wearables side, the Stream smart ring with its new capabilities to capture voice notes and control music effortlessly. Since its debut, it has gained a following for its capacity to manage those iterative tasks that nearly always start in spoken word. As Fahmi, a representative of Sandbar, told us, “What we think is really important is two-way dialogue. Unlike nearly every experience that exists today, where you can just speak one command to transcribe a note or take some other action. Stream is where iterative work shines.
The device has a really special design that allows the user to comfortably raise their hand to write notes. That makes it perfect for personal tasks where privacy is critical. This aspect has gotten some users to interact with the Stream smart ring more than 50 times per day. Sandbar is still in the process of perfecting its app experience. The Chicago-based company is rolling out more conversational back-and-forths to improve engagement and flow.
Nico Wittenborn from Adjacent has begun to scratch the surface of how powerful the Stream smart ring can be. He pointed out that it provides a more portable form factor than existing dedicated note-taking devices. His experience as an investor in other voice-focused startups, most notably as an early investor in Blinkist, has him especially suited to evaluating the potential market for Sandbar’s offering.
Fahmi expressed optimism about the product’s reception, stating, “The response was a lot warmer than we expected, which is really encouraging and meaningful.” This positive feedback could really be a reflection of a strong market demand for new and innovative solutions to the voice note-taking challenges.
Sandbar’s efforts are now concentrated on improving the overall application experience and increasing the scope of what users can do with their recorded notes. The company is looking forward to beginning the first shipments of its Stream smart ring this summer. This launch is a huge step down the product development timeline!