Humane, a secretive AI startup founded by ex-Apple employees, raises another $100M

A startup founded by ex-Apple design and engineering team Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, Humane, today raised another $100 million to build what it calls an "integrated device and cloud services platform" for AI.

Humane's work is shrouded in mystery. But its latest round of funding, a Series C, attracted a laundry list of notable investors, including Kindred Ventures (which led the round), SK Networks, LG Technology Ventures, Microsoft, Volvo Cars Tech Fund, Tiger Global, Qualcomm Ventures and OpenAI CEO and co-founder Sam Altman.

To date, Humane has raised $230 million from existing and previous investors, including Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. Its workforce has grown correspondingly larger, now numbering exactly 200 employees.

"This Series C round presented an opportunity to raise money through equity, and to bring on board great VCs and strategic partners who would like to participate in equity as the company grows," Chaudhri told TechCrunch in an email interview. "At Humane, we're building a first-of-its-kind device and services platform -- we're growing fast, and we’ve been focused on innovation, research and development."

Those lofty promises are characteristic of Humane, which generated buzz after bringing on dozens of decorated ex-Apple employees responsible for the iPhone’s touchscreen keyboard, elements of Apple's industrial design and infrastructure for Apple services like iCloud, Apple Pay and Home. Chaudhri himself spearheaded the design of the iPhone's home screen, while Bongiorno helped to lead software development for iPhone, iPad and later the Mac.

Neither Chaudhri nor Bongiorno are ready to talk about what Humane's been building for the past five years -- yet. The husband-wife duo promise a reveal this spring. But Humane's patent portfolio and hiring reveals some clues.

In 2020, Humane filed an application with the USPTO (spotted by 9to5Google) for a "body-worn device" that uses a "laser projection system" instead of a display -- essentially projected AR glasses that can identify objects in the real world and apply digital imagery to them. And as recently as three years ago, Humane was hiring Android developers to create apps for "personal live broadcasting" as well as "senior monitoring," "memory recall" "and "personal guide."

Noted blogger John Gruber paints a slightly different picture -- one informed by a leaked copy of Humane's 2021 pitch deck. He writes: "The deck describes something akin to a Star Trek communicator badge, with an AI-connected always-on camera saving photos and videos to the cloud, and lidar sensors for world-mapping and detecting hand gestures."

Peeling back the curtains on its process somewhat, Humane did reveal several strategic tie-ups with its investors today.

Humane co-founders Bethany Bongiorno and Imran Chaudhri. Image Credits: Humane

Humane says that it's partnering with SK Networks and Microsoft to bring its platform and services to market, with Microsoft supplying the cloud processing power and SK Networks handling distribution. Meanwhile, Humane's collaborating with OpenAI to integrate its tech into the startup's device -- whatever form it ends up taking, exactly. LG, for its part, is working with Humane on R&D projects for the next phase of its product lifecycle as well as adapting Humane's tech for smart home devices. And Volvo's teaming up with Humane on a potential automotive industry offering.

Qualcomm is also a partner, Chaudhri says, which would make sense if the aforementioned patent is anything to go by. In addition to the laser projection system, the patent diagrams show a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip paired with a camera, 3D camera, depth sensor, heart rate sensor and a wearable battery.