Robot company Machenta secures $40 million seed round financing.

October 30 - London Imperial College spinout robotics company Machenta announced the completion of a $40 million seed round, co-led by Creandum and Union Square Ventures, reportedly the largest seed round for a UK robotics company to date. The company emerged from stealth this week with a team of about a dozen people and currently has no market-facing product.

Machenta was co-founded by Professor Edward Johns of Imperial College's Robot Learning Lab and his PhD student Vitalis Vosylius. Its foundation model is pre-trained entirely in simulation without the need for real-world demonstration data, and after deployment, only a single demonstration is needed for the robot to perform new physical tasks such as packing and organizing. The funds will be used to scale the model and expand the team located in King's Cross, London.