Mecka AI nears $500M valuation in Sequoia-led deal amid rush for robot training data
Mecka AI, which collects human motion data for robot training, is nearing a Sequoia-led round at about a $500 million valuation.
Mecka AI is nearing a new funding round led by Sequoia Capital at a valuation of roughly $500 million, three months after raising $60 million led by Framework Ventures with participation from Menlo Ventures, SV Angel, and Kindred Ventures. Founded in 2024 by Josh Gao, Mogen Cheng, Jason Chong, and Duy Nguyen, the startup pays people to record everyday tasks using body sensors and smartphones to produce egocentric training data for humanoid robots. The company projected a $100 million annual run rate by the end of 2026 and competes with firms like Scale AI, Mercor, Surge, Micro1, and XDOF in the physical-world data market.
- Sequoia Capital leads a new round valuing Mecka AI at roughly $500 million; terms are not final.
- The round follows a $60 million raise three months earlier led by Framework Ventures.
- Mecka captures real-world human motion via body sensors and smartphones to train humanoid robots.
- Co-founder Josh Gao said the startup projected a $100 million annual run rate for 2026.
- Rivals like XDOF are also raising at high valuations amid demand for robot training data.
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Mecka AI, a startup that collects and analyzes human motion data to train humanoid robots and other robotics, is nearing a new round led by Sequoia Capital at a valuation of about $500 million, according to two people with knowledge of the deal.
The new financing comes just three months after Mecka announced that it raised $60 million in a round led by Framework Ventures that included participation from Menlo Ventures, SV Angel, and Kindred Ventures.
TechCrunch has not learned the precise size of the new round. The terms of the deal are not final and could still change.
Mecka AI didn’t respond to a request for comment. Sequoia declined to comment.
Mecka AI was co-founded in 2024 by four entrepreneurs, including 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.
The four co-founders don’t have backgrounds in robotics. But they did recognize that there was a dearth of physical-world data and realized that capturing real-world interactions was the primary bottleneck holding back general-purpose robots, including humanoids.
Mecka, which derives its name 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 LLMs. The startup pays people to record themselves performing everyday tasks — like making coffee or fixing cars — using body sensors and smartphones.
As of early June, Mecka was projecting that it would end 2026 at an annual run rate of $100 million, Gao told Fortune when the startup announced its previous fundraise.
While Mecka AI hasn’t publicly disclosed its customer list, many robotics companies and AI labs rely on real-world data captured through this “egocentric” approach, alongside other physical data collection methods like teleoperation, to build their models.
Other startups collecting real-world data for robot training include XDOF, which TechCrunch reported last week was nearing a new round at a $1.2 billion valuation, as well as human-data platforms expanding beyond LLMs, such as Scale AI and Micro1.
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Text extracted automatically; images, tables and formatting may be missing. Original: https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/11/mecka-ai-nears-500m-valuation-in-sequoia-led-deal-amid-rush-for-robot-training-data/