The personal agent market is heating up. Meta’s Muse, OpenAI’s Dot, and Instinct are vying for dominance, yet a critical ingredient is often missing: trust. Users hesitate to grant agents access to their personal data, communications, and financial tools when the agent’s motives feel opaque or aligned with ad-driven business models. Enter Wajo, a startup founded by ex‑Google and DeepMind engineer Shivani Poddar, which is betting that trust and safety—not just capability—will win the agent wars.

Wajo’s Fo agent works across iMessage and WhatsApp, offering a web interface with task cards for scheduling, gifting, and life admin. It can call businesses or individuals on your behalf, book or cancel services, and even hire a human to complete a task when needed. One standout feature is its virtual credit card, which lets the agent pay for you without exposing your actual card details. The agent also has its own email address and can converse with people and businesses, while alerting you when websites block AI agents so you can take verification steps.

What sets Wajo apart is its architecture-first approach to trust. As Vinod Khosla told TechCrunch, “Who wants to give all their data to Facebook [Meta]? I don’t. And if I give my data to Facebook, I’m the product, not the product I am buying, because they are in the ad business.” Poddar echoes this, noting that trust must be built from day zero—not only in the agent’s design but in product choices like a patented virtual card system that hides user information and a “trusted contact” list for call permissions. The startup has also applied for a patent on its virtual card system and emphasizes that its infrastructure complies with services like Amazon’s terms of service, even as rivals face blocking.

Backing signals confidence: Wajo has secured support from Jeff Dean and Gokul Rajaram, though the amount raised remains undisclosed. The company reports usage in 107 countries and a 10x growth since its launch in late September. This traction comes amid a flurry of agent‑focused innovation. Just yesterday, TechCrunch highlighted Ghost, a $3,499 “brain in a box” personal computer designed to run AI agents locally, which raised an $11 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Meanwhile, OpenAI announced plans to watermark ChatGPT and Codex outputs in the EU to comply with the AI Act, and Etched fields acquisition offers at $40 billion+ for its AI‑focused hardware.

In a landscape where agents are becoming increasingly capable, Wajo’s thesis is simple: the agent that earns your trust will earn your business. By prioritizing safety, transparency, and user control, Wajo aims to offer a personal agent that feels less like a data‑harvesting tool and more like a reliable extension of oneself—one you’d actually want to act on your behalf.

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