The verified answer
As of Oct 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
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
- Embla Medical hfdirect competitor(inferred)moderate
Mentioned on (4)
Registry pages whose text names Friend.
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?
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 2026-10-10
Verification posture
Verified
High confidence
Review state
Stable
Last reviewed 2026-10-10
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.
3 Mexican men jailed for over 158 years for Australian, US surfer murders
A judge has sentenced three Mexican men to more than 158 years in prison each for the 2024 murders of two Australian brothers and their American friend, a case that tarnished…
New York man charged with rape and lethal fentanyl dosing of college student
<p>Prosecutors allege Moises Freire gave two students at FIT the opioid, saying it was cocaine, and raped one as she overdosed</p><p>A man raped a student at <a…
Will the price of gold continue to fall?
After two perfect trades yesterday 📈, I intended to wait for new opportunities, but ended up having a few drinks with a friend and went to bed early 🍻. Checking the market upon…
Vinci targets faster chip design and simulation with physics-driven AI
Simulation is a hardware engineer’s best friend, adept at finding issues in product designs and avoiding a disastrous deployment. Yet the process of orchestrating simulations has…
Be a Friend Campaign Supports Child Cancer Program at Lee Health Golisano Children’s
Oct. 14, 2026 – Throughout Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, Southwest Florida community united to support local children facing cancer and blood disorders through the Be a Friend…
Justin Baldoni Makes Rare Public Appearance on ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Following Blake Lively Legal Battle
According to Page Six, the actor attended ABC's dance competition with his wife and their two daughters as a guest of "longtime family friend" Julianne Hough, months after…
My Friend Has No Soul
The second iteration of the viral Friend AI necklace is louder and less interesting.
Billy Crystal says he no longer trusts God after losing home of 46 years then his longtime friend Rob Reiner
Billy Crystal says he no longer trusts God after losing his Pacific Palisades home in the wildfires and the death of close friend Rob Reiner.
My friend and I live thousands of miles apart. We take cruises together every year to maintain our relationship.
I stay in touch with my long-distance friend in another country by taking cruises together each year. They're fun, and they make planning easy.
Malcolm Pirece Jenkins – Oct. 17, 1986 – Oct. 4, 2026
In Loving Memory of Malcolm Jenkins Malcolm Jenkins was a beloved son, grandson, brother, father, nephew, uncle, and friend with a big personality and an even bigger heart.
Harris: Trump’s Russian fuel plan ‘reeks of weakness’
Former Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday criticized President Trump’s diesel deal with Russia, saying it “reeks of weakness.” “Donald Trump and his war in Iran are to blame…
Kelly Clarkson Responds After New York Store Denies She Got the ‘Pretty Woman’ Treatment: “You’re a Liar”
"It’s not that hard to be kind," she wrote after Art of Play shot down her version of events. "I never blast people but you my friend were an exception. Your store is really cool.…
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 98th percentile but verifies reality at the 22nd percentile among wearable robots. Hype Gap +75.8, 1st widest among wearable robots.
6-month trend
Analysis
Clean safety record across 1 verified deployment. Broad public reach with 97.4M 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: Oct 17, 2026