Board, the New York-based startup from Mirror founder Brynn Putnam, Secures $20M in Funding and Reports Strong Early Adoption

Board, a three-year-old New York startup developing what it terms “together tech”—technology intended to physically gather people in the same room—has successfully closed a $20 million Series A financing round. The investment was led by Union Square Ventures (USV), with General Partner Michael Mignano joining the company’s board of directors as part of his inaugural investment since joining the firm. The round also attracted notable angel investors, including Biz Stone, Tim Ferriss, and Scott Belsky.

This latest capital raise follows approximately eight months since founder Brynn Putnam, who previously exited her connected fitness company Mirror to Lululemon for $500 million, publicly introduced Board at TechCrunch Disrupt last October. The Board hardware features a 24-inch touchscreen housed in a wood-finished frame. Utilizing proprietary technology, the device detects physical game pieces, merging the tactile experience of traditional board games with the interactive capabilities of video games.

According to the company, traction since launch has been robust. Board is currently deployed in tens of thousands of households, schools, hospitals, and restaurants across all 50 states. Putnam reports that 85% of users engage in 30 or more play sessions per month. In conjunction with the funding news, Board unveiled Board Studio, an AI-driven creation platform scheduled for release later this year. This tool aims to enable users to design original games using natural language prompts, promising to transform an idea into a playable prototype in less than an hour.

Prior to this Series A, Board had secured $15 million in funding led by Lerer Hippeau. That firm also led Mirror’s $3 million seed round years prior—a strategic bet that yielded significant returns when Putnam sold Mirror to Lululemon in 2020.

Putnam views Board as a logical evolution of the consumer hardware insights gained during her work on Mirror. “Mirror was very much about me,” Putnam previously told TechCrunch. “It was my reflection, my performance, it was about making your own self better. At that next phase, my life was really just much more about my family and my friends and my relationships.” Consequently, the product centers on the growing concept that technology’s optimal function may be to encourage users to put down their screens and engage directly with one another.

The financing occurs as consumer technology, which had fallen out of favor with investors, begins to show signs of recovery, largely fueled by new possibilities enabled by artificial intelligence. “I’m more excited about consumer than I’ve been in a long time,” Ben Lerer, managing partner of Lerer Hippeau, stated during a separate TechCrunch interview late last year. “We’re seeing a very high-quality group of founders saying, ‘Now’s the time to get back in the pool.’ There are things that are possible today that weren’t possible six months ago or a year ago, and the slope is steep.”

Source: TechCrunch Generated at: 2026-06-02 15:56:08 UTC