Eka Robotics Closes $150 Million Series A Funding Round Led by a16z and F-Prime

On October 21 that, according to TechCrunch, robotics startup Eka Robotics announced the completion of a $150 million Series A funding round, reaching a post-money valuation of $1.45 billion. The round was co-led by a16z and F-Prime. The company was founded by MIT professor Pulkit Agrawal and former Google DeepMind researcher Tuomas Haarnoja.

Eka developed a manipulation architecture combining force-sensitive grippers with a "vision-force-action" model, distinguishing it from the mainstream "vision-language-action" model. Leveraging physics simulators and large-scale reinforcement learning, this model can generate thousands of hours of robotic experience within minutes. According to the company, its robots can grasp approximately 1,500 objects weighing no more than 1 kilogram per hour (compared to humans' roughly 600), achieving a success rate exceeding 95%. The gripper hardware costs less than $1,000, features a rated lifespan of 5 million cycles, and aims to meet the 20 million cycle standard for industrial robotic arms.