Mecka AI, which aims to train robots with human data sourced from body sensors and iPhones, revealed Monday that it has raised $60 million USD in funding.
The news: The Toronto and New York City-based startup wants to build âthe data and deployment layerâ for physical AI. Mecka secured this sum across two previously unannounced SAFE financings: an initial $25-million Series A round in November and $35-million Series A extension that closed in recent weeks. San Franciscoâs Framework Ventures, which typically focuses on crypto, led with support from SV Angel and ex-Google DeepMind researcher Ted Xiao, now a founding member of Jeff Bezosâ AI startup, Project Prometheus, among others.Â
From the source: âRobotic deployment use cases are messy in the real world and not all tasks make sense today,â Mecka co-founder and CEO Josh Gao argued in a news release, adding that the startup brings the âlast-mileâ data processing, models, and other capabilities necessary to make robots work in the field.
Following the thread: Mecka and others are betting that video captured from a first-person perspective will help robots not learn faster and scale more efficiently. The startup currently collects this data from home settings, culinary work, chemistry labs, task platforms, metal fabrication, and leather shops. Its internal âvideo understanding labâ turns this raw footage into training-ready data and refines its computer vision models. Since forming last year, the fast-growing firm has raised $68 million, begun catering to multiple frontier robotics labs and Big Tech firms, and becomeâMecka AI claimsâone of the worldâs largest providers of physical AI training data. Though it is domiciled in the US, three of its four co-founders are Canadian and 40 of its 45 staff are based in Toronto. It plans to use this money to help more companies deploy robots.
Final thought: AI claimed nearly half of all venture capital dollars invested in Canada last year, and global interest in robotics startups, humanoid makers, and companies developing physical AI that integrates into physical systems has also been heating up. Other recent Canadian beneficiaries of this trend include Vancouverâs A&K Robotics and MontrĂ©al-based Mecademic. The Canadian Robotics Council has clocked âa rapid increaseâ in the amount of robotics startups being launched, both at home and abroad.
Feature image courtesy Unsplash. Photo by Gabriele Malaspina.