Reface and Prisma Co-Founders Launch Mirai to Boost On-Device AI Inference by 37% on Apple Silicon

Co-founders from hit AI apps Reface and Prisma have united to launch Mirai, a London startup revolutionizing on-device AI model inference for smartphones and laptops.

Dima Shevts, ex-Reface leader backed by a16z, and Alexey Moiseenkov, former Prisma CEO, identified the need for efficient edge AI amid cloud dominance.

Founders' Legacy in Viral Consumer AI

Shevts' Reface became a sensation with face-swapping tech, earning investment from top VCs and scouting roles.

Moiseenkov's Prisma pioneered viral AI photo filters a decade ago, proving scalable consumer ML experiences.

Technical Edge with Rust-Powered Engine

Mirai's inference engine, built in Rust, accelerates model performance by up to 37% on Apple Silicon without altering weights or quality.

The upcoming SDK promises Stripe-like simplicity, integrating advanced tasks like summarization in just eight lines of code.

$10M Seed Fuels On-Device Future

The 14-person team secured a $10 million seed round led by Uncork Capital, with backers including ElevenLabs co-founder and Snowflake pioneer.

Shevts emphasized the overlooked on-device gap: "Everybody speaks about cloud... but the missing piece is on-device for consumer hardware."

Future expansions target Android, vision modalities, benchmarks, and hybrid cloud orchestration for seamless AI.

By slashing cloud costs and enhancing privacy, Mirai could power next-gen assistants, transcribers, and apps on everyday devices.

As edge computing surges, Mirai positions developers for superior margins and performance in the AI era.