Mind Robotics said on Wednesday it has secured $500 million in a Series A funding round co-led by venture capital firms Accel and Andreessen Horowitz to accelerate the development and deployment of artificial intelligence-enabled robotics systems for industrial manufacturing.
The financing, expected to close later this month, follows a $115 million seed round led by Eclipse Capital in late 2025. As part of the investment, Sameer Gandhi will join Mind Robotics’ board of directors.
Mind Robotics is developing a robotics platform designed to perform complex industrial tasks that require dexterity, adaptation, and reasoning—capabilities that traditional factory robots often struggle to achieve. The company said it aims to address limitations in existing automation systems that are typically optimized for repetitive and dimensionally stable processes.
The startup was founded and is led by RJ Scaringe, who also serves as chief executive of electric vehicle maker Rivian. Rivian remains a partner and major shareholder in the robotics venture, providing access to manufacturing data and production environments that can be used to train and deploy the company’s robotic systems.
“As AI enters the physical world, we believe the largest, at-scale application for advanced robotics will be across the industrial sector,” Scaringe said. “Advanced robotics are going to be critical for global competitiveness, as well as addressing the substantial industrial labor shortages that exist today. We’re building robots that will perform real tasks, in real plants, at real scale.”
Accel partner Gandhi said the firm’s investment reflects confidence in the team’s manufacturing and engineering experience.
“We back leaders, and this team has a track record that speaks for itself,” Gandhi said. “They helped build one of the most ambitious manufacturing operations in the EV industry. That kind of execution doesn’t happen by accident; it reflects the quality of the people behind it.”
Sarah Wang, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, said Scaringe’s experience building an integrated automotive company was a key factor in the investment decision.
“RJ is one of the very few founders who have built and scaled a vertically integrated hardware company,” Wang said. “At Rivian, he architected the full stack — vehicle architecture, electronics, battery systems, embedded software, manufacturing processes, and supply chains — integrating each layer into a cohesive system.”
Mind Robotics said its platform combines AI models, specialized hardware, and deployment infrastructure to enable robots to handle tasks that require greater flexibility and reasoning in manufacturing environments.