What it sells
Automation Foundation Models For Tiny Devices
Business model breakdown
Buyer: who owns the budget?
Mobile and embedded developers building on-device AI (Pebble, Raspberry Pi quoted).
Trigger: what makes them buy now?
Devices with no screen or no connectivity need reliable local tool calling; 8-29MB model runs on-device at up to 4k tokens/sec.
Workflow: what inputs become what output?
Fine-tune Needle locally (open source) or on hosted Cactus GPUs, export 2-bit model, run in app.
Economics: what it saves and how it charges
Free open-source base, paid hosted fine-tuning on Cactus GPUs.
Distribution: how it reaches customers
Open-source GitHub (4.2k+ stars), Hugging Face, self-serve dashboard signup.
Funding history and coverage
| Round date | Stage | Amount | Investors | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | Y Combinator Summer 2025 | — | Y Combinator | ycombinator.com |
Profiles summarize public reporting and company websites. Business-model notes are MaxBC's reading of that material, not confirmed facts; unknowns are left blank rather than guessed. Updated 2026-10-12.