Lifestyle entrepreneur Martha Stewart has entered the artificial intelligence startup race with a new company called Hint, an AI-powered home management platform that aims to help homeowners detect maintenance problems before they become costly repairs.
The startup raised $10 million in seed funding led by Slow Ventures, according to an exclusive report by Fortune. Other investors included Montauk Capital, Tusk Venture Partners, Amplo, Energy Impact Partners, Hannah Grey, and Brian Kelly.
Hint was co-founded by Martha Stewart alongside home-services executive Yih-Han Ma and AI engineer Kyle Rush. The platform is expected to launch this summer on desktop and iOS.The company’s pitch centers on using AI to proactively manage homes by tracking maintenance schedules, utility costs, insurance renewals, environmental conditions, and repair risks.
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“The first thing you do is give us your address,” Ma told Fortune. From there, the system reportedly pulls public property data, weather patterns, air quality information, warranties, and household records to build a digital profile of the home. The AI platform is designed to warn homeowners about issues such as foundation risks, expiring insurance policies, water damage, or unnecessary contractor expenses before they escalate.
Martha Stewart said the idea emerged during a conversation at her farm with Rush, who described technology similar to what she had envisioned for years.
“I’ve wanted to create something beyond education,” Martha Stewart told Fortune, “something that could actually help proactively manage one’s home the way that I do.”The startup enters a rapidly growing market where artificial intelligence is increasingly being integrated into consumer services, personal assistants, and home automation systems.
Industry analysts say Hint reflects a broader shift toward “agentic AI,” where software systems proactively manage tasks rather than simply responding to user commands.
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The U.S. home maintenance market alone represents hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Fortune cited a Harvard housing study estimating Americans spend more than $500 billion each year on home repairs and renovations.Hint’s business model could also place it in competition with existing home-service and contractor platforms such as Angi and Thumbtack, though the startup argues its focus is preventative management rather than contractor marketplaces.
“The more Hint learns about your home, the more the system can do without human intervention,” Slow Ventures co-founder Kevin Colleran said.The company said recommendations generated by the platform would remain independent from commercial partnerships and referral incentives, an issue that has increasingly drawn scrutiny across AI-powered consumer recommendation platforms.
The launch also underscores how celebrities, investors, and technology entrepreneurs are increasingly converging around AI startups as competition intensifies across Silicon Valley and the broader venture capital ecosystem.