Updated
Updated · TechCrunch · Aug 5
Hark Launches Handoff Browser Agent After $700 Million Raise, Targeting API-Less Websites
Updated
Updated · TechCrunch · Aug 5

Hark Launches Handoff Browser Agent After $700 Million Raise, Targeting API-Less Websites

1 articles · Updated · TechCrunch · Aug 5

Summary

  • $700 million-backed startup Hark unveiled Hark Handoff, a browser agent it says can complete tasks on sites without official APIs, including Target, Walmart, OpenTable and LinkedIn.
  • Hark said the agent reads website structure and visual cues to decide where to click or type, letting users delegate jobs such as ordering food, booking travel, filing returns, shopping and restaurant reservations.
  • The company is starting with a post-trained model and plans to pre-train later this year, arguing that the current approach helps it refine data pipelines, training infrastructure and action-prediction techniques faster.
  • Competition is already crowded with Google, OpenAI, Anthropic and browser-automation startups pursuing similar computer-use agents, while Hark claims Handoff is faster and cheaper than models such as GPT 5.5 and Opus 4.8.
  • A waitlist is now open, and Hark plans to release the platform by the end of the summer; its public demo showed only part of a flower-ordering workflow, leaving real-world effectiveness unclear.

Insights

Can Hark’s new browser agent really outperform OpenAI and Google, or will reliability and security flaws expose the limits of AI web automation?
Why are browser agents like Hark Handoff shifting from text prediction to action prediction, and could that change how people use the web?