Aina, a startup based in Bengaluru and San Francisco that builds hardware to control AI agents, has raised US$5.5 million in a round led by Redstart Labs (Info Edge, India) and 360 ONE.

Other backers include MIXI Global Investments, Antler, Blume Founders Fund, and individual investors such as WhatsApp head Kunal Shah, and Razorpay co-founders Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar.

Founded by Apoorv Shankar, former vice president of hardware at smart ring maker Ultrahuman, Aina is starting with Dune, a three-key, context-aware keypad for meeting controls and app shortcuts.

The product enters a market where physical keypads already handle meeting functions. Elgato’s Stream Deck, for example, supports Zoom actions including mute, camera, screen sharing, reactions, and recording.

Shankar said Aina plans to begin testing another device with a small group of users in the coming weeks.

He said the new product will be designed to control and trigger AI agents rather than passively capture context.

🔗 Source: TechCrunch