Mecka AI nears $500M valuation in Sequoia-led funding round

September 12, 2026 at 03:58 AM2 min

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Mecka AI, a startup collecting human motion data for robot training, is nearing a new funding round led by Sequoia Capital at a valuation of about $500 million. The round comes three months after Mecka announced a $60 million raise led by Framework Ventures. The terms are not final and could still change.

Key Facts

Mecka AI 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.
Three months ago, Mecka announced a $60 million round led by Framework Ventures with participation from Menlo Ventures, SV Angel, and Kindred Ventures.
Mecka was co-founded in 2024 by Josh Gao, Mogen Cheng, Jason Chong, and Duy Nguyen.
As of early June, Mecka projected an annual run rate of $100 million by the end of 2026.
XDOF, another startup collecting real-world data for robot training, was reported last week to be nearing a round at a $1.2 billion valuation.

Funding Round Details

Mecka AI 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 three months after Mecka announced a $60 million round led by Framework Ventures that included Menlo Ventures, SV Angel, and Kindred Ventures. TechCrunch has not learned the precise size of the new round, and the terms are not final and could still change. Mecka AI did not respond to a request for comment, and Sequoia declined to comment.

Company Background

Mecka AI was co-founded in 2024 by four entrepreneurs: Canadians Josh Gao and Mogen Cheng, who previously built a restaurant fintech startup, Jason Chong, who joined Coinbase after it acquired his crypto exchange, and Duy Nguyen, the only non-Canadian, who focuses on operations. The four co-founders do not have backgrounds in robotics but recognized a dearth of physical-world data as the primary bottleneck for general-purpose robots. Mecka, named after 'mecha,' a fictional giant robot controlled by humans, aims to do for robotics what Scale AI, Mercor, and Surge have done for large language models. The startup pays people to record themselves performing everyday tasks like making coffee or fixing cars using body sensors and smartphones.

Market Context

As of early June, Mecka projected an annual run rate of $100 million by the end of 2026, according to co-founder Josh Gao. Many robotics companies and AI labs rely on real-world data captured through this 'egocentric' approach, alongside teleoperation, to build their models. Other startups collecting real-world data for robot training include XDOF, reported last week to be nearing a round at a $1.2 billion valuation, and human-data platforms expanding beyond LLMs such as Scale AI and Micro1.