The verified answer
As of Sep 2026, DEPLOY verifies Friend: 1 model, 1 deployment across 1 region. 4 sources back the record.
CategoryWearable AI
Overview
Friend is a consumer AI wearable company developing the Friend pendant — an AI companion device that provides unlimited conversation for $29/month. Founded by Avi Schiffmann. Based in San Francisco.
Verified record
- Verified deployments
- 1 deployment on file
- Active incidents
- None on file
Key facts
Product
Founder
Product Feature
Marketing
Milestone
Data & sources
Press releases
1
News coverage
1
Web sources
2
4 sources backing this record.View all →
Models (1)
View all models →Partnerships
Every company Friend has built with, alongside the ones only announced in a press release.
Most-frequent partners
- 1Bould Design1× joint
Most recent
Friend on the deployment map
View the global map1 verified deployment across 1 region, newest verified Jun 2024. Explore where Friend's robots are operating, by place and type.
View the full Friend deployment record →
Relationships
Current leadership (1)
- Avi Schiffmann Founder & CEOreported, not verified
Founders (1)
- Avi Schiffmanncofounder
Safety record
No incidents on record for Friend.
Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.
Full safety record: incidents, sourcing, and exposure data →
Operator customers (1)
- Friend1 deployment
Recent coverage
Friend in third-party press
Psychology says men who describe their wife or partner as the person they feel closest to aren’t unusually dependent — among married men, it is overwhelmingly the norm, even as men are far less likely than women to turn to friends for emotional support
AUD/USD SENDS CLEAR BULLISH SIGNALS|LONG
It doesn’t happen suddenly: how people in their 60s and 70s slowly find themselves alone, with no one to talk to
Peers
35 peers across 1 segment. Every Friend competitor derived from shared form-factor and application-domain edges.
wearable(35)
32 companies in this segment · highly_concentrated (HHI 2595.3892239124602) · leader Oculus VR at 4361%
- Baidudirect competitor(inferred)moderate
- Based Hardwaredirect competitor(inferred)moderate
- Beedirect competitor(inferred)moderate
- Brilliant Labsdirect competitor(inferred)moderate
- Dexcomdirect competitor(inferred)moderate
- Esper Bionicsdirect competitor(inferred)moderate
Financial state
- Reporting basis
- private_reported
- Lifecycle stage
- mature
- Counterparty risk class
- low
Each numeric field carries its own basis marker. Aggregators report a number; this surface preserves the source class so verification depth travels with the value.
Partnerships
1 total · 1 operating
Every company Friend has built with, alongside the ones only announced in a press release.
Most recent
Most-frequent partners
- 1Bould Design1× joint
Recent activity
Every change to this record is dated, sourced, and independently verified where marked.
- Verified media addedVerifiedJun 5, 2026
Friend AI companion pendant
- Record createdJun 3, 2026
Added to the verified registry
- Deployment verifiedVerifiedJun 1, 2024
Friend at New York
Sources (4)
- https://friend.com/?page=hardware
- https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/30/friend-is-an-ai-companion-backed-by-founders-of-solana-perplexity-and-zfellows/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friend_(product)
- https://www.tomsguide.com/ai/friend-is-a-dollar99-ai-necklace-that-wants-to-help-you-remake-the-movie-her
Common questions
What is Friend?
What does Friend make?
Is Friend publicly traded?
Who competes with Friend?
Who is the CEO of Friend?
How can I invest in Friend?
Where is Friend headquartered?
Who owns Friend?
Where does Friend operate robots?
How many robots has Friend deployed?
Is Friend a top robotics company?
When was Friend founded?
Is Friend safe?
Methodology: Verified · 4 sources (1 primary) · last reviewed 2026-08-21
Verification posture
Verified
High confidence
Review state
Stable
Last reviewed 2026-08-21
Sources by quality tier
- 1
- primary-company-ir
- Company IR disclosure
- 1
- secondary-industry-publication
- Industry publication
- 1
- knowledge-base
- Knowledge base
- 1
- unclassified
- Unclassified source
The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.
Methodology surface for Friend.In the press
Recent coverage mentioning Friend from third-party publications. Automatically surfaced; not part of the verified registry record.
Psychology says men who describe their wife or partner as the person they feel closest to aren’t unusually dependent — among married men, it is overwhelmingly the norm, even as men are far less likely than women to turn to friends for emotional support
Men's closest relationships have shrunk to a single person, leaving them vulnerable when that bond fractures.
AUD/USD SENDS CLEAR BULLISH SIGNALS|LONG
https://www.tradingview.com/x/teLesnx8/ Hello, Friends! AUD/USD is trending up which is evident from the green colour of the previous weekly candle. However, the price has locally…
It doesn’t happen suddenly: how people in their 60s and 70s slowly find themselves alone, with no one to talk to
The erosion happens in increments—a retirement, a friend's relocation, a child's distance—until one day the phone stops ringing and the calendar stays blank.
Anthropic promises zero data retention – but customers must check it worked
More compliance-friendly stance could boost appeal of Fable
Jennifer Aniston’s boyfriend, Jim Curtis, reveals what 'Friends' star is really like behind closed doors
Wellness coach Jim Curtis opened up on a podcast about Jennifer Aniston's private, loving nature and the relationship tools the couple relies on.
Measuring what matters: Wave 2 community wellbeing surveys reveal coastal trends
Every day along the NSW coast, people are heading to the beach, walking coastal tracks and spending time with family and friends by the water. Regular visits to the NSW coast have…
Ex-Indiana deputy charged with felony for allegedly using Flock cameras to stalk girlfriend
Skylar Thompson allegedly ran over 2,000 Flock camera searches on his girlfriend's license plate, falsely listing them as city planning duties.
Razer just released a cute and teensy mobile game controller
It's called Prio and folds up when not in use, making it pocket-friendly.
Sony’s New ULT Tower Max Wireless Party Speaker Delivered Massive Sound I Felt in My Chest
The large, DJ-friendly loud speakers have new designs, lots of connection options and plenty of thump.
Shelly’s new $50 security camera watches your home without a subscription
After launching a budget-friendly flood sensor last month with impressive battery life, Shelly announced a new $49.99 security camera today that can be used without any additional…
Samsung's new Galaxy Book 6 model is a budget-friendly $799 laptop
Samsung has released a more accessible and affordable Galaxy Book 6 laptop.
JBL’s Cove speakers want to make setting up dynamic multiroom audio a two-minute job
The new whole-home lineup features modern-looking, modular, surround sound-friendly Wi-Fi speakers starting at $229 and ready to play out of the box in three easy steps. The post…
Machine-readable surfaces
- Markdown mirror: /companies/friend.md
- RSS feed: /companies/friend/feed.xml
- JSON-LD: embedded in this page’s head
- REST API: /v1/companies/22098f52-af91-4aa3-a4dc-168715e1c244
- Revision history: /companies/friend/history
- Data documentation: /data
- Query this programmatically: Deploy MCP
Video
Trolling My Friend as the ANOMALIES in Animal Hospital! Today I'm trolling my friend Arkey by pretending to be one of the ANOMALIES in Animal Hospital! Watch until the end to see all of his reactions and SUBSCRIBE! Tha
Trolling My Friend’s Clan with REAL ADMIN in Rivals Today I'm trolling my friend Arkey's Clan with REAL ADMIN in Roblox Rivals.. Watch until the end to see all
A friendship like theirs 💗 Pokémon Horizons: Season 3, now playing on Netflix! SUBSCRIBE: https://bit.ly/2ZflIEC About Netflix Family: Welcome to the officia
It all started in the 2006 when 14-year-old Christina Hamilton walked into a criminal justice class, she had no idea she was about to meet the future biggest po
✨ Imagine a humanoid robot that’s soft, lightweight, inflatable, and safe enough to interact closely with people. Researchers in Japan have developed an innova
When you say hello to your girlfriend's friend and suddenly you're in the doghouse. 😂 A relatable stickman animation about the chaos of innocent gestures being
Heat Index
Serious52/100
A composite of competitive footprint, funding, press velocity, active partnerships, and supply-chain edges. Different from the Intelligence score below (which is per-form-factor productization). Non-robotics companies cap at 25.
Reality vs attention
Friend draws attention at the 97th percentile but verifies reality at the 20th percentile among wearable robots. Hype Gap +77.7, 1st widest among wearable robots.
6-month trend
Analysis
Clean safety record across 1 verified deployment. Broad public reach with 96.1M video views. Deployment footprint remains limited relative to category peers.
Signal flags
Dimension breakdown
Verified signal
Attention (reach, not merit)
DEPLOY Intelligence scores are computed from verified registry data: confirmed deployments, disclosed funding rounds, regulatory filings, active job listings, video viewership, and press coverage. Confidence ratings reflect data availability. Scores update nightly.
DEPLOY Indices — verified vs claimed
Last computed: Sep 2, 2026