Pocket, a Y Combinator-backed startup, announced in June 2026 that it has raised $11 million to expand its AI-powered recording device — a credit card-shaped puck that attaches to the back of a smartphone and captures, transcribes, and organizes conversations without requiring a subscription.
The funding round was led by Accel, with participation from Y Combinator and Mati Staniszewski, CEO and co-founder of ElevenLabs. Pocket says it has sold more than 130,000 units since launching last year.
The device costs $129 and includes unlimited recordings and transcriptions at no additional charge. A $200-per-year plan unlocks AI-generated meeting summaries, queries to an AI assistant, daily highlights, and file attachments. Users can also generate mind maps, ask questions about past meetings, and convert transcripts into different templates through the companion phone app.
Pocket was co-founded by Akshay Narisetti, a founding member of rival note-taking startup Omi, and Gabriel Dymowski, who previously founded a blockchain-based document management startup. Narisetti said the product was designed with offline, real-world use in mind. “We thought every meeting notetaker was built for online conversations, but nothing was geared towards real-life talk,” he told TechCrunch.
The company targets professionals including lawyers, salespeople, doctors, real estate agents, construction workers, and students. For enterprise customers, Pocket offers custom workflow management, webhook support, and integrations with tools such as Google Calendar, Google Drive, OneDrive, Obsidian, Claude, and Cursor, along with a model context protocol (MCP) server.
Pocket operates in a crowded market that includes software-based competitors such as Granola, Fireflies, Otter, and Read AI, as well as hardware rivals like Plaud, Mobvoi, Anker, Viaim, and Vibe. Plaud, one of the more established device-first players, is reportedly on track to generate $100 million in annual revenue.
Source: TechCrunch