Mecka AI raises $60 million from Sequoia to film our movements and train humanoids

The start-up pays volunteers fitted with sensors to record everyday tasks – a rare resource for robot training.

Mecka AI has announced a $60 million Series B round led by Sequoia, with participation from Nvidia and M12, Microsoft's venture capital fund. TechCrunch had previously reported that the startup was trading a round based on a $500 million valuation.

Founded in 2024, the company wants to play the role that Scale AI, Mercor and Surge have played for large language models for robotics: to provide the human-made data that systems need to learn. In concrete terms, Mecka pays people to record themselves making a coffee or repairing a car, wearing body sensors and filming with their smartphones.

The niche is growing: XDOF, which also collects real data for robots, was discussing a Series B valued at $1.2 billion, while platforms born with LLMs, such as Scale AI or Micro1, are expanding their activity to robotics.