Mecka AI nears $500M valuation in Sequoia-led deal amid rush for robot training data

Mecka AI, a 2024 startup that gathers human motion data to train humanoid and general-purpose robots, is reportedly close to a Sequoia-led funding round valuing it near $500 million. The deal would follow a $60 million round announced three months earlier, though terms are not final and the company has not disclosed customers.

The rapid valuation jump shows investor conviction that physical-world data could become as strategically important to robotics as labeled human data was to large language models. As robotics companies race to improve humanoid performance, startups that can collect scalable, high-quality real-world interaction data may become critical infrastructure.