Humane, the once-buzzy maker of a wearable AI pin designed to be the future of personal tech, saw its story end in a sale to HP at a fraction of its valuation peak. The pin itself is now discontinued.
But Kindred Ventures managing partner Steve Jang, one of Humane’s biggest backers, doesn’t seem put off by the lackluster exit. He still sees mainstream consumer applications of AI as the biggest investment opportunity this year.
“We want to see many more entrepreneurs take on that challenge and explore more IoT and wearable products for consumers,” Jang told PitchBook News Thursday in an interview at the Upfront Summit in Los Angeles. “Whether it’s earbuds, eyeglasses, pins, pendants, watches, bracelets— we’re excited about all of those.”
A huge proportion of venture capital in AI in the last two years has gone to business-to-business startups. VCs have been enamored with developer tools like Cursor, an AI-powered tool that hit $100 million in recurring revenue in less than two years after its launch.
Meanwhile, firms like Greycroft and Lerer Hippeau have shifted their teams or brand messaging further away from consumer in the past year. And some of the most high-profile startup collapses of the last year— including Forward and Bowery Farms—involved consumer businesses.
But some investors, including generalists like Jang and specialists such as Forerunner’s Kirsten Green, are hailing the return of consumer venture bets.
Humane’s flagship product, a $699 wearable device with a laser display and an AI-powered chat assistant, suffered a slew of glitches and mishaps, including a fire hazard warning to customers about its battery.
Sleek design and seamless user experience are mandatory for consumer AI companies to succeed, Jane argues. “You have to have a lot of design affordances for consumers. It has to be easy for them to understand, feel trustworthy, and most importantly, it has to feel substantially delightful.”
Novel hardware tech startups like Humane AI and Forward—the shuttered “Doctor in a Box” creator in which Jang was a small angel investor—involved companies with costly assets that bogged down their ability to innovate, says Jang. (Forward raised over $500 million over the course of its existence, Humane over $200 million.)
“If you start a capital-intensive business before a major breakthrough happens, you have to adapt very quickly. It’s very hard when you have physical infrastructure like leases and hardware,” Jang says.
The high upfront capital requirements of hardware have kept many VCs away from the space during the age of software and cloud products. And not for naught: SaaS startups maintain the best average exit rate of any vertical, at 75.7%, according to PitchBook’s 2024 VC Emerging Opportunities Report.
But some investors remain undeterred despite the hardware challenges—even after painful outcomes for some of their portfolio companies.
“We’re in the business of betting on moonshots,” says Jang.
Correction: This story was corrected to note that Steve Jang made a small angel investment in Forward, not through Kindred Ventures. (March 1, 2025)
The Humane AI Pin, an innovative wearable device featuring a camera and a projector, on exhibit at the SK Telecom pavilion during the Mobile World Congress 2024 in Barcelona, Spain.
NurPhoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images
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