First Voyage raises $2.5M for its AI companion that helps you build habits

In a world rapidly filling with AI-generated content, a startup called First Voyage wants to help people avoid all the AI ​​sloppiness and instead build the habits they want. And this is done via an AI companion app: Called Momo self-carethe app offers a digital pet called Momo that you can care for, and in return it will remind you to complete habit-building tasks.

Users can set reminders for which tasks they want to complete, and Momo will remind you. Similar to the press the Focus Friend productivity appMomo also rewards you with coins for completing tasks that can be used to purchase items in the app to further customize the pet. Users can also talk to Momo about self-care, and the AI ​​companion will recommend habits and tasks based on what you want to achieve.

“Momo helps users become the best versions of themselves, and users reward Momo with care, affection and cute accessories,” co-founder and CEO Besart Çopa told TechCrunch. He launched the company together with Egehan Ozsoy, who serves as CTO.

On Monday, First Voyage said it had raised $2.5 million in a seed funding round from a16z speedrun, SignalFire, True Global and other investors.

Copa said Momo users have already created more than 2 million tasks on the platform, and the most popular habits involve productivity, spirituality and mindfulness.

But with the wave of AI apps and toys hitting the market, not to mention the growing influence of AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude and Grok, there is growing concern that these new so-called “companions” could do more harm than good.

For example, Çopa believes that relationships between AI characters and humans will only increase in the coming years. However, he noted that the increasing number of AI apps focused on wellness and self-care are at least better than those that focus on basic needs.

“We are happy with so many founders [and] Startups are working in the AI ​​self-care wellness space instead of building waifus,” he said, adding that AI’s “personalization power will take the impact of these relationships to another level.”

He noted that Momo has built in safety features such as prompt filters to ensure conversations between the AI ​​and users stay within proper boundaries.

The new money from the fundraiser will be used to launch Momo on the Android App Store (it’s already available on iOS). The First Voyage team also hopes to make Momo more intelligent in the way it interacts with people.

“We hope Momo and the community around it become a defining consumer brand that uses the best of AI, animation and gamification to improve as many lives as possible,” said Çopa.