Fambot introduces an ‘AI chief of staff’ for families; plus, Newlight is fuel-injecting hydrogen to make cargo ships more efficient

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1:13That's Framer.com slash tcstartups. Rules and restrictions may apply. AI agents that perform tasks on your behalf to help solve your daily problems are all the rage in Silicon Valley. But the startup Fambot sees a future for agents out in the real world, too, where they are used by families who need help keeping up with the mental load of children's activities, school events, newsletters, and other family logistics. The startup, which is introducing what it calls an AI chief of staff for parents, was founded by former Instagram engineer, now Fambot CTO Greg Carlin, and CEO David Reich, a father, former president at United Masters, and an ex-Uber product head who last led the 250-person Uber transit team.

2:03Like many entrepreneurs, Reich built the product that he himself wanted to use. He said, I've got three kids, and I'm constantly struggling between doing all these executive jobs, as my wife is doing as well, and then getting home at the end of the day, I just want to unplug, spend some time with my kids, be present, do some homework together, kick the ball around, and instead, I'll find myself just spending an hour literally catching up on 40 emails. As any parent with active kids could tell you, the information overload is not limited to email alone. There are WhatsApp groups to keep up with, dedicated apps for school or kids' sports and clubs, flyers sent home from school, and more.

2:46The quest to constantly stay on top of all these to-dos kept Reich feeling like he was being robbed of time with his kids. Reich and Carlin began working on a solution around a year and a half ago, when they were then joined by a third co-founder, Jason Morrow, previously of Google and LinkedIn. The team wanted to devise a way to use AI to make it feel like families had a full-time personal assistant that was proactively helping them stay on top of things, not just reacting to input. So to use Fambot, families connect their email, calendar, and the WhatsApp groups they need to pay attention to.

3:22After that, the bot will offer a daily checklist with to-dos and a look ahead at what's coming up on your calendar in the future. Under the hood, the company uses a combination of different AI models, with the caveat that none of the models can train on its users' data. What's different about Fambot compared with other trending AI agents like poke or instinct is that it doesn't only work over text messages. This is a significant differentiator for the startup, as it is betting that real-world users of AI like this will also want to engage with the AI bot over the web or in a traditional mobile app interface.

4:02By offering software solutions instead of just text, Fambot can build out more advanced features. Of course, you can still text Fambot to ask questions or get updates if you prefer. Plus, the team is planning to integrate Fambot over time with more of the apps where family and kids' communications take place. Eventually, that would make Fambot a central hub for keeping up with all the kid-related and family-related communications, a promise that's bigger than just another AI agent you can text. Ahead of launch, Fambot was tested by over a thousand families, where the company learned that its target demographic wasn't just larger, two-parent households where both parents work, but also only child families, single-parent families, families where the parents don't work, and other variations.

4:53That proved the concept made sense not only for those with the busiest households, but that Fambot could be potentially useful to anyone with kids. The startup is backed by$3.5 million in pre-seed funding, co-led by NextView Ventures and Waldkunst, with participation from Correlation Ventures, Carmen Ventures, and Founders Network. Fambot is currently free while in beta testing on iOS, Android, and the web. Later, it expects to price the service somewhere around the cost of a Netflix subscription, though that could change. It's one of the most iconic scenes in the Fast and Furious film franchise.

5:34Paul Walker's thumb comes off the steering wheel and he smashes a small red button, pumping nitrous oxide into the engine of his Mitsubishi Eclipse and giving the car an explosive boost. Now, this is not exactly how the hydrogen injection system developed by a startup called New Light works on cargo ships. In fact, the company's system uses compressed hydrogen fuel to boost efficiency, not to beat Vin Diesel. But it is an analogy that's proved to be useful for co-founder Evyatar Cohen. He said in an exclusive interview with TechCrunch, Instead of getting power, we actually say to the engine, Hey, reduce the fuel flow to the engine.

6:16We don't need as much because we have some nitrous. It's just called hydrogen. The small team based in the San Francisco Bay Area has developed this hydrogen injection system as a retrofit, which it claims can be installed in less than two weeks without needing a dry dock. It cuts fuel use and emissions by more than 20 percent and can save some vessels as much as$500 ,000 in annual costs, according to the startup. New Light does this by constantly monitoring the diesel engine and finding optimal moments, down to the millisecond level, to inject the hydrogen fuel. That includes measuring exhaust temperature, combustion pressure, and air intake pressure, and increasing or decreasing the hydrogen flow every time a piston moves inside the engine's cylinders.

7:06The startup says this hybrid system has completed its first long-range commercial voyage, an 8 ,500 nautical mile trip from Singapore to Ghana. New Light installed its tech on a 650-foot-long Lomar shipping bulk carrier ship for the test. The startup said its system reduced fuel consumption by 24 percent and carbon dioxide emissions by 28 percent. Haran Cohen-Hallel, Cohen's co-founder and the CEO of New Light, said of the month-long voyage, it was amazing. Being on board and seeing the system operate in real conditions was a completely different experience from anything we had done in the lab.

7:46Turning the system on with his co-founder for the first time, he said, was an emotional moment for both of them. We spent a lot of time monitoring the system, the engine behavior, and the performance, and what impressed us most was how smoothly everything worked. Seeing the system integrate with the vessel, operate reliably, and deliver the results we had been working toward was a huge milestone for us and for the entire New Light team. The combination of those projections, the clever pitch, and the years Cohen and Hillel spent working in the Israeli Navy has helped the duo secure a$9 million seed round.

8:24The fundraise included investment from Lomar Labs, the venture arm of Lomar Shipping, Bird Energy, a joint venture between the U.S. Department of Energy and the Israel Ministry of Energy, Deep Tech Funds, Undeterred Capital, and Siri Ventures, and Fusion VC, an accelerator for Israeli startups in the U.S. Newlight also says it's attracting commercial interest. The company claims it has signed agreements to put the hydrogen injection system on 12 vessels across multiple companies, with broader fleet rollouts planned for next year. There are other companies working to use fuel injection methods to cut emissions and boost efficiency, including with ammonia or methanol.

9:07But New Light argues its hydrogen setup is leaner and requires fewer changes to the diesel engines typically used on cargo ships. The two co-founders also told TechCrunch they see opportunities beyond the marine industry as well, though they expect to stay focused on the sea for now. That's all for now. For the latest in startup tech news, go to TechCrunch.com.

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