Limitless, the AI startup formerly known as Rewind, has been acquired by Meta. The company announced the acquisition on Friday.
Limitless previously made an AI-powered pendant designed to record conversations. Following the acquisition, the company will no longer sell this hardware. It will maintain support for existing customers for one year, and those customers will be moved to an Unlimited Plan without a subscription fee.
Other company functions will be wound down. This includes its non-pendant software called “Rewind,” which recorded users’ desktop activity to create a searchable record.
The startup was founded by Brett Bejcek and Dan Siroker, the co-founder and former CEO of Optimizely. It pivoted to become an AI device maker last year, offering its Limitless pendant for $99. The wearable could attach to a shirt like a microphone or be worn as a necklace. It was one of several AI hardware devices on the market, including another AI pendant known as Friend.
In its announcement, Limitless stated it shares Meta’s vision to “bring personal superintelligence to everyone,” which involves building AI-enabled wearables. Meta is currently focused on AR and AI glasses, such as its Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta lines, as well as its in-lens AI glasses, the Meta Ray-Ban Display. Limitless said it will help bring that vision to life, likely meaning it will support Meta’s existing products rather than help create a new AI pendant for Meta.
The company hinted that increased competition made it difficult to compete, especially as larger players like OpenAI and Meta develop their own hardware devices. Dan Siroker wrote in the announcement that the world has changed since founding Limitless five years ago, noting that AI and hardware startups are now mainstream pursuits.
Meta provided a statement saying, “We’re excited that Limitless will be joining Meta to help accelerate our work to build AI-enabled wearables.” The tech giant did not share further details, but noted the team will work within the wearables organization of Reality Labs.
Limitless will offer its customers a way to export their data, or users can choose to delete their data from within the app.
The startup had raised more than $33 million in funding from investors including a16z, First Round Capital, and NEA.