Tab, a new AI assistant designed for messaging platforms, raises $300 million as trust and privacy become central in the competitive consumer AI landscape, challenging established players like Meta’s Muse.
Tab, a personal AI assistant built around text messaging, has come out of stealth with a valuation of $300 million, according to TechCrunch. The start-up, founded by Brennan Erbz, Stafford Schlitt and Ammar Amdani, is positioning itself in a fast-moving market for consumer-facing AI agents that promise to take over ordinary tasks such as booking travel, ordering groceries and handling other routine errands.
The product is designed to work through iMessage or WhatsApp, where users can send requests in plain language and have the assistant carry them out. Amdani told TechCrunch that the service is meant to feel closer to messaging a trusted contact than operating software. He said the system has its own phone number, computer and wallet, allowing it to act on a user’s behalf rather than simply explaining how to do the work.
Tab’s pitch arrives as rival products push personal AI further into everyday life. Meta’s Muse, for example, has been described as a more expansive assistant capable of managing shopping, customer-service interactions and other web-based tasks, while also tying into a broader ecosystem of apps and devices. That broader trend has made consumer AI assistants more visible, but it has also intensified scrutiny over how much access these tools should be given to emails, calendars, payments and other sensitive information.
Privacy and trust are now central competitive issues in the sector. Tab says user data is not used to train AI models, and that payment information is kept in a vault that the company itself cannot see. Nothing that can be reversed happens without the user’s explicit approval, according to Amdani. He framed that as the core difference between a useful assistant and one people are prepared to rely on for personal tasks.
Investors in Tab include SV Angel, Valar Ventures and American Spirit. The company says it is currently growing largely through word of mouth and plans to launch another product soon. Amdani acknowledged that the market is crowded, but argued that the decisive question is not only how capable an assistant is, but whether people are willing to grant it access to their digital lives.
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