Robotics company Dyna Robotics has emerged from stealth, announcing it secured a $23.5 million seed round as it works to make embodied AI robots accessible to businesses of all sizes.
The funding round was co-led by CRV and First Round Capital.
Dyna Robotics was co-founded by Lindon Gao and York Yang who founded hardware AI company Caper.AI, which developed the AI-powered smart shopping cart, and former DeepMind researcher Jason Ma.
Dyna said its robots master one task at a time. They start with simple tasks that can be done with an affordable pair of stationary robotic arms like folding and preparing food, allowing embodied AI models to learn and improve as the company works toward developing general-purpose embodied AI robots.
Gao said across sizes and industries, companies have tasks they would readily offload to robots if the right solutions existed at the right price points.
“Despite thriving language, image, and video models, embodied AI still hasn’t ‘cracked the code,” Gao said in the announcement. “Robotics foundation models require vast, high-fidelity datasets in the real-world, but real-world data is scarce and simulations alone can’t fully capture our complex physical environment.
“We’re collecting extensive, task-specific data — for everything from packaging to cleaning toilets — and landing commercial value by delivering practical solutions while systematically advancing embodied AI.”
First Round Capital Partner Bill Trenchard said Dyna Robotics is tackling one of the biggest hurdles to AI robot adoption: cost.
“A single humanoid robot can cost over six-figures — if it’s even on the market,” Trenchard said in a statement. “By focusing on tasks achievable with an affordable pair of stationary arms, Dyna Robotics is reducing complexity and lowering costs, which allows them to deliver real value to customers now. We believe their strategy will accelerate embodied AI development and adoption.”
This article first appeared in AI Business’ sister publication IoT World Today.