Genesis AI, a Stealthy Startup, Secures $105M to Create Powerful AI Models for All-Round Robotics Applications

Hot off the press is the announcement of Genesis AI—a robotics-centric startup—emerging from stealth, revealing a hefty $105 million seed funding round, a feat that not only establishes its financial footing but unquestionably asserts its lofty ambitions in the realms of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. Rising tech-focused venture capital firms, Eclipse and Khosla Ventures, jointly led the funding round.

Genesis AI, masterminded by Zhou Xian—a PhD holder in robotics—and Théophile Gervet—a one-time research scientist—intuits the creation of a universal model, a prototype that would equip robots to take over an array of repetitive tasks ranging from laboratorial to domestic. How the duo plan on achieving this is by training the AI model on synthetic data, thereby overcoming the time-consuming, cost-ineffective issues of collecting real-world data. This intuitive approach to data stems from a proprietary physics engine, the powerful tool responsible for generating the synthetic data.

Venture capital firm Khosla Ventures, a part of the funding round, speaks highly of Genesis AI’s prospective trajectory. Kanu Gulati, a partner at Khosla Ventures, commended the company’s approach, saying, ‘Of all the teams we have seen, we like [Genesis’] approach for going after robotics foundation models.’

As part of its roadmap, Genesis AI is steering the development of its synthetic data offering and constructing its foundational model across two main offices, located in Silicon Valley and Paris. Aiming high, Genesis has plans to unveil its model to the robotics community by year’s end, setting the stage for a potential game-changer in the robotics industry.