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Mecka AI nears $500M valuation in Sequoia-led deal amid rush for robot training data
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Mecka AI is nearing a new round led by Sequoia Capital at a valuation of about $500 million, according to two people familiar with the deal. The financing follows a $60 million round announced three months ago, led by Framework Ventures with Menlo Ventures, SV Angel, and Kindred Ventures participating. Terms are not final and could change.
Founded in 2024 by four entrepreneurs, Mecka includes Canadians Josh Gao and Mogen Cheng, who previously built a restaurant fintech startup, and Jason Chong, a Coinbase alum. Duy Nguyen handles operations. None had robotics backgrounds, but they saw missing physical-world data as the key bottleneck for humanoid robots.
The startup pays people to record everyday tasks like making coffee or fixing cars using body sensors and smartphones. Its name comes from "mecha," a fictional giant robot controlled by humans. Mecka aims to do for robotics what Scale AI and other human-data companies did for large language models.
In early June, Mecka projected an annual run rate of $100 million by the end of 2026, Gao told Fortune. The company has not disclosed customers. Many robotics firms and AI labs use such "egocentric" data, along with teleoperation, to train models.
The deal highlights a broader rush for robot training data. XDOF, for instance, is nearing a $1.2 billion valuation, and Scale AI and Micro1 are expanding beyond LLMs. Sequoia's involvement signals growing investor confidence in data-centric robotics.
Mecka did not respond to a request for comment, and Sequoia declined. If the round closes, Mecka will join a crowded field of startups supplying physical-world data for humanoid robots. Its revenue projection suggests strong demand, but competition is intensifying.
