Ollie, a startup that aimed to provide a privacy-centric AI assistant, announced it will cease operations within a week. Co-founder and CEO Bill Lennon posted on X on Friday, stating the service will officially end on November 6.
"I'm really proud of what we accomplished," Lennon said. "We built an incredible personal assistant with a small team, and learned a ton. I'm grateful to our amazing team, our users, our investors, and everyone who supported us on this journey."
The market for text-based AI assistants has surged over the past year as increasingly powerful models have made them more useful for everyday tasks.
Ollie, which disclosed a $7.5 million seed round led by Khosla Ventures to TechCrunch in September, operated on a subscription model. The service was designed to help families stay connected and organized, linking to users' email and calendar and offering features for appointment booking, meal planning and bill payments, with future plans for household budgeting.
Notably, Ollie was among the first mainstream apps to achieve SOC 2 certification, a privacy compliance standard verified by an independent audit. However, privacy has rarely been a profit driver in tech, and many newer assistants pose privacy risks, as seen with companies like Instinct.
Lennon said the pressures of the fast-growing AI sector ultimately forced the shutdown. "We got close, but ultimately couldn't keep up," he added. "With Muse, Instinct, and others entering the space, it became harder to stand out, grow, and raise the capital we needed to succeed."
Customers will be given instructions in the coming days on how to export their data and obtain refunds, Lennon said.
