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XDOF, just three months out of stealth, is in talks for a Series B at a $1.2B valuation
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XDOF, a robotics data startup founded just months ago, is reportedly in advanced talks for a Series B funding round that would value the company at approximately $1.2 billion. The deal, led by venture capital firm 8VC, marks a dramatic escalation for the company less than three months after it emerged from stealth mode.
The startup was co-founded in 2024 by UC Berkeley researchers Philipp Wu and Fred Shentu. Their work began as a research project called GELLO, a low-cost teleoperation system for generating robot training data. This foundation led to the creation of XDOF, which quickly secured a $70 million Series A in June from investors like Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz.
XDOF's rapid valuation ascent is fueled by explosive growth. The company's annualized revenue is reportedly approaching $50 million, a figure that has prompted venture capitalists to approach it unsolicited about a new funding round. The total capital to be raised in this Series B is not yet known.
The company's mission is to solve a critical bottleneck in general-purpose robotics: the lack of large-scale, real-world training data. Unlike language models, robots require physical interaction data. XDOF acts as an outsourced data-supply chain, building the collection tools and annotation systems for AI labs and robotics companies.
To accomplish this, XDOF combines remote teleoperation with human collectors wearing sensors to record everyday tasks. It is partnering with UC Berkeley's AI Research lab to release a massive dataset called ABC, described as the largest collection of high-quality robot training data ever assembled.
Investors have likened XDOF to Scale AI or Mercor for physical robotics, positioning it as a crucial infrastructure provider. The startup is already working with 20 customers, including several frontier AI laboratories. It plans to expand globally by hiring and training teams of remote teleoperators and egocentric data collectors.
The robotics data space is becoming increasingly competitive, with startups like Mecka AI and established players like Scale AI also targeting this need. While the deal terms with 8VC are not yet final, XDOF's swift journey from academic project to a potential unicorn underscores the intense demand for the foundational data that will train the next generation of intelligent machines.
