Startups & Funding
Hark raises $700 million to build universal AI interface
Hark has raised $700 million in a Series A round at a $6 billion valuation, and expects to release multimodal models and hardware devices starting this summer.
Hark, an artificial intelligence startup, has raised $700 million in a Series A funding round, valuing the company at $6 billion post-money. The round was led by Parkway Venture Capital.
The funding round attracted a group of investors, including:
- Nvidia
- Align Ventures
- AMD Ventures
- ARK Invest
- Brookfield
- Greycroft
- Intel Capital
- Prime Movers Lab
- Qualcomm Ventures
- Salesforce Ventures
- Tamarack Global
The company was launched in late 2025 by founder and CEO Brett Adcock, who initially backed the venture with $100 million of his own money. Adcock is also the entrepreneur behind the robotics company Figure.AI and the electric aircraft builder Archer, establishing a clear distinction between those previous companies and his current venture. Hark currently has 70 employees. The startup is developing agentic AI—which refers to AI systems designed to perform tasks autonomously—to serve as a universal interface with the digital world. Hark expects to release its first multimodal models—AI models capable of processing multiple types of data—this summer. The company expects to follow those model releases with dedicated hardware devices built specifically for those systems.
Abidur Chowdhury, Hark’s director of design, emphasized that current AI products focus heavily on software creation rather than helping everyday users, a gap that Hark aims to fill. Chowdhury noted that while competitors like Anthropic are prioritizing coding tools and OpenAI is moving in a similar direction, few companies are focusing solely on building interfaces and native hardware. “People are really building things to help people make software, and it’s working, and it’s really impactful, but we haven’t really seen that for the normal person yet,” Chowdhury said. He added that with this specific focus, the team, and the newly raised capital, the company can build something special in the consumer AI space.
The company faces significant challenges in building an AI assistant that can provide personal context. Specifically, Hark must design a system that avoids making the people around the user uncomfortable or violating their privacy. When asked how the company might address this challenge, Chowdhury only smiled and suggested that solving it would make a great product.
Why it matters
The $700 million Series A round highlights the massive capital requirements for startups attempting to build the first must-have AI consumer product. It underscores the high financial barriers for developing both specialized models and consumer hardware in the emerging agentic AI sector.