Enigma raises $70M to make controlling a robot as easy as adjusting the volume
Robotics startup Enigma has raised $70 million to develop intuitive interfaces for robots by studying human-robot interaction. The company is launching a global experiment allowing users to control its proprietary robots online.
Why it matters
The startup aims to solve the 'foundation model' problem in robotics by focusing on human-centric control rather than just raw data processing.
Multiple robotics companies are tackling one of AI’s hardest problems: building foundation models capable of executing tasks they were never explicitly trained to handle. Their approaches run the gamut — from studying millions of web videos and conducting computer simulations to collecting motion data from humans performing tasks in gloves with built-in sensors.
Enigma , a research lab set to emerge from stealth on Monday, is taking a fundamentally different approach. Rather than focusing purely on model capabilities, the less-than-one-year-old startup wants to study how humans engage with robots in hopes that these interactions will lead to intuitive interfaces and possibly a different kind of robotic brain.
To finance its mission, Enigma raised a $70 million seed round led by Index Ventures and Ribbit Capital, with participation from Sarah Guo of Conviction Partners.
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