Mecka AI, a startup that collects and analyzes human movement information to coach humanoid robots and different robotics, is nearing a brand new spherical led by Sequoia Capital at a valuation of about $500 million, based on two individuals with information of the deal.
The brand new financing comes simply three months after Mecka introduced that it raised $60 million in a spherical led by Framework Ventures that included participation from Menlo Ventures, SV Angel, and Kindred Ventures.
TechCrunch has not discovered the exact measurement of the brand new spherical. The phrases of the deal will not be last and will nonetheless change.
Mecka AI didn’t reply to a request for remark. Sequoia declined to remark.
Mecka AI was co-founded in 2024 by 4 entrepreneurs, together with Canadians Josh Gao and Mogen Cheng, who beforehand constructed a restaurant fintech startup, and Jason Chong, who joined Coinbase after it acquired his crypto trade. Duy Nguyen, the one non-Canadian on the staff, focuses on operations at Mecka.
The 4 co-founders don’t have backgrounds in robotics. However they did acknowledge that there was a dearth of physical-world information and realized that capturing real-world interactions was the first bottleneck holding again general-purpose robots, together with humanoids.
Mecka, which derives its title from “mecha,” a fictional large robotic managed by people, got down to do for robotics what Scale AI, Mercor, Surge, and different human information firms have finished for LLMs. The startup pays individuals to file themselves performing on a regular basis duties — like making espresso or fixing automobiles — utilizing physique sensors and smartphones.
As of early June, Mecka was projecting that it will finish 2026 at an annual run fee of $100 million, Gao informed Fortune when the startup introduced its earlier fundraise.
Whereas Mecka AI hasn’t publicly disclosed its buyer listing, many robotics firms and AI labs depend on real-world information captured by way of this “selfish” strategy, alongside different bodily information assortment strategies like teleoperation, to construct their fashions.
Different startups accumulating real-world information for robotic coaching embrace XDOF, which TechCrunch reported final week was nearing a brand new spherical at a $1.2 billion valuation, in addition to human-data platforms increasing past LLMs, comparable to Scale AI and Micro1.
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