Mecka AI, a startup focused on collecting and analyzing human movement data to help train robots, has raised $60 million in a Series B funding round as demand grows for real-world data to develop humanoid robots and other robotic systems.
The funding round was led by Sequoia and included participation from Nvidia, Microsoft’s venture fund M12 and other investors. The new investment comes as robotics companies increasingly look beyond traditional software and simulation environments and turn to data gathered from people performing tasks in the real world.
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TechCrunch previously reported that Mecka AI was approaching a new funding round at a valuation of around $500 million.
Founded in 2024, Mecka AI is building a business model centered on collecting the type of human-generated data that can be used to teach robots how people move and perform everyday activities. The approach is similar in some ways to the role companies such as Scale AI, Mercor and Surge have played in the development of artificial intelligence models by providing data that helps train those systems.
For Mecka AI, the focus is on physical tasks rather than text or other digital information. The company pays people to record themselves carrying out activities such as making coffee, repairing cars and completing other everyday tasks. Participants can use smartphones and wearable body sensors to capture their movements and interactions with their surroundings.
That data can then provide robotics companies and developers with information about how humans perform tasks in the physical world. Such datasets could become increasingly important as companies work to develop robots that can operate in homes, factories, warehouses and other environments designed for people.
The growing interest in this market has also attracted other startups. XDOF, which focuses on collecting real-world data for robot training, was previously reported by TechCrunch to be in talks to raise a Series B round at a valuation of $1.2 billion.
The shift is also bringing companies that originally focused on data for artificial intelligence models into the robotics industry. Scale AI and Micro1, for example, have expanded their activities beyond data used to train large language models and into areas related to robotics.
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The broader trend highlights a growing challenge for the robotics industry. Building capable robots requires more than advances in hardware and artificial intelligence models. Robots also need large amounts of high-quality data showing how tasks are performed in the physical world.
As companies race to develop humanoid robots capable of handling increasingly complex tasks, startups such as Mecka AI are positioning themselves as providers of the data needed to train those machines. The latest funding gives Mecka AI additional capital as it works to expand its human-motion data collection and support the rapidly developing robotics market.