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Mecka AI, the robot-data startup paying people to wear body sensors, raised a $60M Series B led by Sequoia at a reported $500M valuation in October 2026.
Key Takeaways
- Mecka AI closed a $60 million Series B led by Sequoia Capital, announced October 7, 2026.
- TechCrunch reported a valuation near $500 million; the company has not confirmed it.
- Mecka projects a $100 million annual revenue run rate by end of 2026, based on signed contracts.
Lead
Mecka AI, a Toronto and New York startup that sells human-motion data to robotics developers, has raised a $60 million Series B round led by Sequoia Capital. The company announced the deal on October 7, 2026. TechCrunch reported that the round values Mecka at roughly $500 million, a figure the company has not confirmed.
Nvidia, Qualcomm Ventures, Samsung and Microsoft's venture arm M12 also put money into the round. Angel checks came from DoorDash chief executive Tony Xu, former ServiceNow and Snowflake chief executive Frank Slootman, and Milan Kovac, who previously led Tesla's Optimus humanoid program.
What Does Mecka AI Actually Sell?
Mecka sells recorded human motion data that robot developers use to train humanoid and other machines. The company pays workers to wear body sensors and use iPhones while they do everyday tasks such as preparing drinks or repairing vehicles. It converts those recordings into structured training sets that capture motion, contact, force and geometry.
Mecka's pitch is that this approach complements teleoperation, where a human remotely steers a robot to generate demonstrations. Its EgoVerse dataset holds 1,362 hours of recordings across 80,000 episodes from 2,087 unique demonstrators. Customers are unnamed, described only as several leading robotics labs and multiple Magnificent Seven companies.
The company was founded in 2024 by Josh Gao, Mogen Cheng, Jason Chong and Duy Nguyen. Gao and Cheng previously built a restaurant fintech business in Canada, so the founding team came to robotics without a hardware background.
How Does This Round Compare With Mecka's Last One?
The new round matches the size of Mecka's previous financing but arrives at a much higher price. In June 2026, the company disclosed $60 million raised across two earlier rounds: a $25 million Series A that closed in November 2025 and a $35 million follow-on, both led by Framework Ventures. Menlo Ventures, SV Angel, Kindred Ventures and former Google DeepMind researcher Ted Xiao also participated.
Total funding now stands at about $120 million, raised in under a year. A second $60 million check within four months of the first disclosure suggests the earlier rounds were priced well below what Sequoia was willing to pay. The reported $500 million valuation also puts a high multiple on revenue that, for now, exists mostly as contracted projections.
Is the Revenue Claim Credible?
Gao told Fortune that Mecka expected to reach a $100 million annual revenue run rate by the end of 2026, based on signed contracts. That is a forecast built on bookings, not recognized revenue, and run-rate figures tend to flatter young companies with lumpy, project-based sales. Customer concentration is the open question, since the buyer list is small and unnamed.
The strategic investors on the cap table point to demand from the chip and device side as well. Nvidia, Qualcomm and Samsung all sell silicon or hardware into robotics, and each benefits if humanoid developers get cheaper training data. Their participation does not confirm the revenue figures, but it shows that suppliers expect the data market to grow.
What Are Mecka's Competitors Doing?
Mecka competes with other data suppliers including XDOF, Micro1 and Encord, and with robotics developers such as Physical Intelligence that collect demonstrations in-house. Gao has framed the company as doing for robotics what Scale AI and Mercor did for language models, supplying labeled human work at volume. That comparison carries a caution, because data-labeling businesses have historically faced thin margins and customers who bring collection in-house once volumes justify it.
Proceeds will go toward scaling data infrastructure, deepening an internal research lab and expanding deployments of commercial robots. Headcount was roughly 40 in June, so most of the new capital will fund collection operations and compute rather than a large hiring push.
Outlook
Mecka has doubled its disclosed funding to about $120 million in under a year and now carries a reported $500 million valuation backed by Sequoia and several strategic chip and device investors. The next test is whether contracted bookings turn into recognized revenue and whether anonymous customers renew. If robotics labs keep buying outside data, Mecka's early position looks defensible. If those labs build their own collection pipelines, the company will need to prove that its scale of contributors and sensor quality are hard to copy.
