A New York startup called Signull Labs has pulled in more than $3.58 million in pre-seed funding for Skye, an iPhone app that wants to replace the chatbot-and-app loop with an AI-aware home screen, according to TechCrunch AI. The round closed in September 2025 and values the company at $19.5 million post-money, per PitchBook data cited in the report. Backers include a16z, True Ventures, SV Angel, and Offline Ventures.
What stands out here is the bet itself. Skye isn’t building another chat interface. It’s using iOS widgets as the surface for what its creator calls an “agentic home screen,” pulling in personalized signals through user-authorized connections.
What Skye actually does
TechCrunch AI reports the app is still in private testing, but the founder has been demoing capabilities on X. Based on those posts and the TechCrunch AI interview, Skye is positioned to handle:
- Ambient context like local weather, health stats, and what you’re doing right now
- Drafting email replies and prepping you for meetings
- Sending reminders and flagging suspicious charges on your bank accounts
- Location-aware recommendations for nearby businesses, neighborhoods, and attractions
The pitch is that you don’t open an app or talk to a bot. The home screen itself becomes the agent.
The founder situation
The creator goes by signüll on X. TechCrunch AI confirmed his name as Nirav Savjani through SEC filings, but agreed to keep him pseudonymous in the piece because he wasn’t ready to go on the record. He says he previously worked at Google and Meta, though he has no obvious LinkedIn footprint. He’s been showing up on the TBPN podcast as an avatar rather than in person.
That’s an unusual posture for a founder raising from a16z and True Ventures. It also tells you something about the moment: stealth-by-default, identity-light, audience-first. The waitlist is reportedly in the “tens of thousands” already, per the founder’s claim to TechCrunch AI.
Why this matters
The phone-as-AI question is heating up. Rumors of an OpenAI smartphone have been circulating, Rabbit and Humane tried to invent new device categories and largely face-planted, and Apple Intelligence has shipped slower than the hype suggested. Skye’s bet is that you don’t need new hardware. You need a smarter way to use the hardware everyone already owns.
If widgets can become live, agentic surfaces that pull from your calendar, email, banking, and location data, then the home screen stops being a launcher and starts being a dashboard. That’s a meaningful shift in how people relate to their phone.
The risks are real, though. Pulling sensitive data through authorized connections means privacy posture has to be airtight from day one. Apple’s widget framework has limits on background refresh and interactivity that any “ambient intelligence” play has to design around. And consumer waitlists are a soft signal. Conversion to active users is where most of these stories break.
What to watch next
Savjani told TechCrunch AI the app will launch to its waitlist soon, without specifics. A few things worth tracking once it ships:
- How deep the integrations go. Banking and health data are the high-trust categories that make or break the product
- Whether the widget surface can actually feel “agentic” inside Apple’s constraints, or whether users still end up tapping into a full app
- Whether the funding signal from a16z, True, and SV Angel translates into the distribution muscle this kind of consumer launch needs
A stealth founder, a pre-launch app, and a $19.5 million valuation say the smart money thinks the home screen is the next interface battleground. We’ll find out soon whether the people putting their name on a waitlist agree.
Full details at the original TechCrunch AI piece.