Robot Data Startup Eyes $500M Round

Mecka AI, a startup that gathers and processes human motion data to train humanoid robots and other machines, is nearing a funding round led by Sequoia Capital at a valuation of about $500 million, according to two people with knowledge of the deal. The reported financing would land just three months after the company announced a $60 million round led by Framework Ventures, with Menlo Ventures, SV Angel, and Kindred Ventures also participating.

The round's reported shape

TechCrunch reported that it has not learned the precise size of the new round. The terms are not final and could still change, according to the two people cited. Mecka AI did not respond to a request for comment, and Sequoia declined to comment.

The reported valuation figure would place Mecka among a small set of robotics-data startups attracting large checks. TechCrunch reported last week that XDOF, another startup collecting real-world data for robot training, was nearing a new round at a $1.2 billion valuation, according to its report.

Paying people to record motion

Mecka pays people to record themselves performing everyday tasks — making coffee or fixing cars, for example — using body sensors and smartphones. That approach, often described as "egocentric" data capture, produces recordings of real-world interactions from the perspective of the person doing the task. The company collects and analyzes the resulting motion data to train robots.

Many robotics companies and AI labs rely on real-world data captured through this approach, alongside other physical data collection methods like teleoperation, to build their models, according to the report. Mecka has not publicly disclosed its customer list.

Founders without a robotics background

Mecka AI was co-founded in 2024 by four entrepreneurs. That group includes Canadians Josh Gao and Mogen Cheng, who previously built a restaurant fintech startup, and Jason Chong, who joined Coinbase after it acquired his crypto exchange. Duy Nguyen, the only non-Canadian on the team, focuses on operations at Mecka.

None of the four co-founders had backgrounds in robotics. According to the report, they recognized that physical-world data was scarce and concluded that capturing real-world interactions was the primary bottleneck holding back general-purpose robots, including humanoids.

Borrowing the data-labeling model

Mecka, whose name derives from "mecha," a fictional giant robot controlled by humans, set out to do for robotics what Scale AI, Mercor, Surge, and other human data companies have done for large language models. Those companies built businesses around paying people to generate, label, or annotate data used to train AI systems.

The model has since spread beyond language models. Human-data platforms such as Scale AI and Micro1 have been expanding past LLMs, and robot-training data collection has drawn its own set of startups.

A revenue projection from June

As of early June, Mecka was projecting that it would end 2026 at an annual run rate of $100 million, according to co-founder Josh Gao, who spoke to Fortune when the startup announced its previous fundraise.

• $500 million — reported valuation for the new Sequoia-led round
• $60 million — size of the round Mecka announced three months earlier
• $100 million — annual run rate Mecka projected for the end of 2026, as of early June
• $1.2 billion — reported valuation for XDOF's new round

What the deal still leaves open

Several details remain unresolved. TechCrunch has not learned the precise size of the round, and the terms are not final. Mecka AI did not respond to a request for comment, and Sequoia declined to comment. The valuation figure rests on two people with knowledge of the deal, not on a company confirmation.

The company also has not publicly disclosed which robotics companies or AI labs buy its data. The report describes reliance on egocentric capture across the industry without naming specific customers.

Why robot training data matters

The reported round is one data point in a broader pattern: investors putting money into companies that supply the physical-world data used to train robots. XDOF's reported $1.2 billion valuation and the expansion of human-data platforms beyond language models point in the same direction, as does Mecka's own move from a $60 million round to a reported $500 million valuation in three months.

Whether that pace holds depends on factors the source does not resolve — final deal terms, customer demand, and whether the run rate Mecka projected in early June materializes. For now, the clearest takeaway is that capital is flowing toward the companies assembling the raw material that general-purpose robots need.