Months after shuttering her previous venture, the former Yahoo CEO returns with Dazzle, securing backing from top-tier VC Kirsten Green to tackle the personal assistant market.
SAN FRANCISCO - In a rapid strategic pivot that has captured the attention of Silicon Valley, former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has launched a new artificial intelligence initiative, Dazzle, securing $8 million in seed funding just months after dissolving her previous company. The funding round, announced on December 23, 2025, was led by Kirsten Green of Forerunner Ventures, signaling continued institutional confidence in Mayer's ability to navigate the consumer technology landscape despite recent headwinds.
The launch of Dazzle marks a significant transition in Mayer's post-corporate career. It follows the September 2025 closure of Sunshine (formerly Lumi Labs), her first startup effort which focused on contacts and photo sharing. According to reports from TechCrunch and other outlets, Dazzle has acquired Sunshine's assets and aims to leverage the technical groundwork laid by the previous team to "redefine personal assistants" through advanced AI, moving beyond the utility-focused apps that defined her previous venture.
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The emergence of Dazzle comes at the end of a turbulent 18-month period for Mayer's business interests. The trajectory from Sunshine to Dazzle highlights the rapid iteration required in the current AI boom:
While Sunshine focused on what Mayer termed "mundane tasks"-specifically the unglamorous work of organizing contacts and syncing photo albums-Dazzle appears positioned to tackle broader AI applications. Sunshine's earlier products, including the invite-only Sunshine Contacts app launched in 2020, struggled to achieve mass adoption. Critics noted that while the technology was functional, the problems it solved were often viewed as niche or solved well enough by native OS features.
The new capital from Forerunner Ventures suggests a belief that Mayer's team can pivot from utility apps to more sophisticated AI agents. Reports indicate that Dazzle will focus on the concept of the "personal assistant," a fiercely competitive space currently dominated by tech giants.
"When you have people who can't tell what's real anymore and what's authentic because the machine intelligence is now approximating the human intelligence, that is really the biggest risk." - Marissa Mayer on AI challenges (February 2024)
The involvement of Kirsten Green is a critical endorsement. As the founder of Forerunner Ventures, Green has a reputation for backing consumer-centric defining brands. Her leadership in this round implies that Dazzle may have a unique consumer angle that differentiates it from enterprise-heavy AI solutions.
However, skepticism remains. TechCrunch described Sunshine's 2024 product suite as inducing "nostalgia," questioning whether a photo-sharing app could compete in the modern social media ecosystem. Furthermore, privacy advocates have previously raised alarms regarding the data-scraping nature of contact management tools-concerns that Dazzle will need to address as it likely requires deep access to user data to function as an effective assistant.
Mayer's pivot reflects a broader trend in the technology sector where "legacy" startup concepts are being retooled for the AI era. The challenge for Dazzle will be to prove that it is not merely a rebranding of Sunshine's technology but a genuine leap forward. Mayer has previously expressed excitement about AI "changing everything," but she has also been vocal about the ethical implications, particularly regarding authenticity. It remains to be seen how Dazzle will balance the utility of automation with user privacy and data security.
With $8 million in the bank and the assets of Sunshine absorbed, Dazzle enters 2026 with a clean slate. The immediate focus will likely be on product development and distancing the brand from the mixed reception of Shine. Industry watchers should expect Dazzle to unveil specific functionalities of its personal assistant technology in the coming quarters, likely attempting to solve the "mundane tasks" Mayer has long targeted, but with the generative power of modern AI engines.
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