Vinod Khosla backs Wajo’s AI agent on trust

Investor Vinod Khosla is backing Wajo, a startup founded by former Google and DeepMind engineer Shivani Poddar, because he believes its focus on trust could set it apart in the personal-agent market. He told TechCrunch that an agent acting for someone must be trustworthy, and said Wajo was built with trust and safety as priorities.

Wajo’s Fo agent works across iMessage and WhatsApp and offers tasks such as scheduling, gifting and other personal administration through a web interface. It can contact businesses or people to book or cancel services. In early tests, TechCrunch’s reporter said Fo successfully called an airline to ask about upgrades, but a call to remind the reporter’s partner to feed the cats did not go smoothly, and the disclosures were less clear.

Fo can also hire a human to complete a task, create a virtual credit card to pay without sharing the user’s details, and use its own email to communicate with people and businesses. When a site blocks AI agents, it can ask the user to step in or create a group with the user and business for verification.

Wajo said its agent is used in 107 countries and has grown 10x since its launch in late September, but gave no user or funding figures. It has applied for a patent for its virtual card system. The company says it plans to explore multi-user social settings for Fo in the coming months, with privacy as a central concern.