XDOF in Talks for $1.2B Series B Just Three Months Out of Stealth
Less than three months after emerging from stealth mode, XDOF is reportedly in late-stage discussions to raise a $1.2 billion Series B round led by venture capital firm 8VC. The startup specializes in collecting real-world teleoperation data for training general-purpose robots and was co-founded in 2024 by UC Berkeley researchers Philipp Wu (CEO) and Fred Shentu (CTO). XDOF had previously raised a $70 million Series A led by Thrive Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Lux, and Spark Capital. The company’s rapid growth—annualized revenue is approaching $50 million—has attracted significant investor interest despite not planning to raise funds so soon after the last round. XDOF aims to serve as an outsourced data supply chain for robotics companies by building tools for data collection, annotation, and pipeline management. The startup plans to partner with UC Berkeley’s AI Research lab to release what it claims is the largest high-quality robot training dataset ever assembled. XDOF's approach combines remote teleoperation systems like GELLO—developed during Wu’s PhD research—with human operators wearing sensors to capture real-world tasks. The company already works with 20 customers, including frontier AI labs and robotics firms. Competitors in the space include Mecka AI as well as data-labeling platforms such as Scale AI and Micro1 expanding into physical robot training.
Topics: fintech robotics Series B round startup funding