Mecka AI is closing in on a Sequoia Capital-led financing that would value the company at about $500 million, a development that puts fresh focus on startups selling real-world data used to train humanoid and other robots. The potential deal follows Mecka’s $60 million raise three months earlier, and signals growing investor appetite for so-called egocentric motion datasets and other physical-world signals.
The company, founded in 2024 by four entrepreneurs, collects human motion and interaction data by paying people to record everyday tasks using body sensors and smartphones. Mecka’s co-founders include 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 on the team who focuses on operations. None of the founders come from robotics backgrounds, but they identified a shortage of physical-world training data as a bottleneck for general-purpose robots and humanoids.
Mecka, which borrows its name from the word “mecha,” has modelled its business on the data platforms that fed large language models, positioning itself alongside human-data companies such as Scale AI, Mercor and Surge. The startup has not publicly listed customers, but many robotics firms and AI labs rely on egocentric recordings as well as teleoperation and other methods to build and refine their models.
Three months after the $60 million round led by Framework Ventures, which included Menlo Ventures, SV Angel and Kindred Ventures, Mecka is now projecting continued revenue momentum. Gao said the company expected to finish 2026 at an annual run rate of $100 million. The exact size and final terms of the new financing are not yet known and could change. Mecka did not respond to a request for comment, and Sequoia declined to comment.
The fundraising push comes as other startups focused on physical-world training data attract big valuations, with peers like XDOF reported to be nearing a $1.2 billion valuation, and human-data platforms such as Scale AI and Micro1 expanding beyond LLM services. If the Sequoia-led deal closes at the reported valuation, it will reinforce investor interest in companies that convert everyday human activity into datasets for robotics development, while leaving the sector exposed to the usual uncertainty that accompanies unfinished financing terms.
