AI that listens to your brain 🧠
Dec 10, 2025
Kaley Ubellacker
Happy Wednesday! If you’re new here, welcome to Necessary Nuggets, your one-stop pre-seed shop. We deliver updates from Necessary Ventures and helpful tidbits on our little corner of the world. Every edition is also on our blog.
Good Reads 📖
For the rushed reader …
Awear, a new wearable founded by former Rakuten Symphony R&D head Antonio Forenza, is tackling stress with a twist on century-old EEG technology.
Hinge founder Justin McLeod is stepping down after 14 years to launch a new AI-powered dating startup, Overtone.
A new survey from Google Workspace of U.S. knowledge workers under 40 shows that nearly all are using AI at work, but the novelty is wearing off.
For the less rushed reader …
Riding the brainwave
I can’t stress this enough: healthtech wearables are not going anywhere. Awear, a new wearable founded by former Rakuten Symphony R&D head Antonio Forenza, is tackling stress with a twist on century-old EEG technology. Using EEG, Awear measures high-frequency beta brainwaves to detect chronic stress and manage it before it impacts health. Worn discreetly behind the ear, the device pairs with an app that provides AI-powered insights and coaching for emotional resilience. The startup recently closed a pre-seed round led by Hustle Fund, Niremia Collective, Techstars, and The Pitch Fund, and plans to raise a $5 million seed round in early 2026. Clinical testing is currently underway at Stanford for post-surgery cognitive monitoring. Some might call the device ear-resistible.
Match made in algorithms
It’s time we all swiped left on swiping. Hinge founder Justin McLeod is stepping down after 14 years to launch a new AI-powered dating startup, Overtone. His aim with the new company is to replace swiping with voice‑ and AI-driven matchmaking to foster more natural connections. What makes Overtone especially interesting is that it will be backed by Match Group, Hinge’s parent company, which plans to lead Overtone’s pre-seed financing round in early 2026, funding what could become a direct competitor. McLeod built Hinge from a dorm‑room idea into a business projected to reach $1 billion in annual revenue by 2027, but chose to leave at the peak of success and quietly developed Overtone throughout 2025 while still at Hinge. If this means no one has to stress over witty prompts for their dating profiles anymore, I think that’s a win.
One custom-fit AI please
Can AI develop a personality already? A new survey from Google Workspace of U.S. knowledge workers under 40 shows that nearly all are using AI at work, but the novelty is wearing off. 92% of people surveyed want AI that feels personal, matching their own writing style and integrating end-to-end with their workflow. While AI boosted confidence for 93% of respondents, power users who actively engineer parts of their workflows expect outputs that feel authentic rather than generic or bot-written. Google’s research underscores that personalization must be the next focus for AI, but delivering it at scale remains technically challenging. It’s not surprising that the only time Gen Z-ers want to hear something botty is if it’s a Megan Thee Stallion song.
Market Stirrings 🚩
Here's what the week looked like in pre-seed:
$17.6M
20
Data aggregated from proprietary research and Crunchbase; valuation estimate based on 10-20% ownership stake.
TOP DOLLAR
SaaS, hardware, and healthtech are leading the pack as the top pre-seed industries by total capital raised. SaaS dominates by a wide margin, bringing in roughly $1.2 billion from Q1 to Q3 2025. In fact, total capital raised was about 240% more than hardware, the next-highest industry, which raised $338 million.
saas
Soxton AI - Rose-colored clauses.
Soxton raised $2.5 million led by Moxxie Ventures. Soxton is building an AI legal platform that automates early-stage legal work, like incorporation, fundraising, and contracts.
healthtech
Metri Bio - Organ-izing a fresh approach.
Metri Bio raised $5 million led by Pillar VC. Metri Bio is developing a precision drug discovery platform to develop new therapeutics for endometrial diseases.
AI
Honeyjar - Sticking to the story.
Honeyjar raised $2 million led by Heather Hartnett and Kevin Mahaffey. Honeyjar is building an AI co-pilot that automates communications and PR workflows, helping teams focus on strategy instead of repetitive, time-intensive tasks.
JOBORTUNITIES
| VP of Finance | - Copper:
Rethinking the induction stove and making kitchen electrification more accessible than ever. Picture a fossil-free future, without sacrificing aesthetics.
| Full Stack Software Engineer | - OneImaging:
Envisioning the future of transportation beyond cars and into the realm of personal electric vehicles. Its first product, P1, is the ultimate tool for city navigation.
Outro🚪
Have any questions, feedback, or comments? Just reply here. We iterate and curate the newsletter according to your interests!
Some last matters of business:
If you’re a technologist (engineer or product manager / designer with a technical background) join us on the NVTC LinkedIn group if you haven’t. We’d love to have you!
Sign up here if you’re interested in co-investing with Necessary.
If you’re a startup founder, we’d love to help where we can! Brex provides full-stack finance solutions for startups. Sign up via Necessary and get bonus points.
Thanks for reading, and see you next week!
