Brief
Eka Robotics raises $150 million, valuation hits $1.45 billion
The MIT‑spun startup’s force‑sensitive gripper and deep‑learning model enable superhuman dexterity, drawing praise from investors and academics.
By Felo News Desk · Published
Eka Robotics announced on 20 October 2026 that it has closed a $150 million Series A financing round, valuing the company at $1.45 billion post‑money. The round was led by venture firms a16z and F‑Prime, according to the company’s filing.
What happened
The funding comes as Eka unveiled a manipulation architecture that pairs a force‑sensitive gripper with a novel deep‑learning model. The robot can manipulate roughly 1,500 objects up to 1 kg each within an hour, a speed the firm says exceeds human performance (about 600 objects per hour). Eka reports a pick‑up success rate of more than 95 percent.
What the reports add
TechCrunch noted that a16z general partner Raghu Raguram, who co‑led the round, said the robot is already surpassing superhuman performance on certain tasks and expects broader superhuman dexterity in the coming months. University of Illinois Urbana‑Champaign professor Kris Hauser described the demo as having a “wow factor” and noted the robot’s ability to adapt to many objects without retraining. An unnamed roboticist from a frontier lab compared the emotional impact of watching the robot to early breakthroughs in legged locomotion.
What was said
Raghu Raguram told TechCrunch, “They are already exceeding superhuman performance for certain tasks, and so we think over the next few months there will be superhuman performance in many dexterous manipulation tasks.” Hauser said the robot showed “humanness, creepy humanness that it would try over and over again if it failed the first time.” The anonymous lab researcher said, “The experience of a big, heavy robot rushing towards my arm and then slowing down just in time and very gently touching me is a feeling that I am, as we speak, carrying this feeling in my body.”
How it came about
Eka Robotics was founded by MIT professor Pulkit Agrawal and former Google DeepMind researcher Tuomas Haarnoja. The company’s approach differs from vision‑language‑action models by building a foundational model that directly integrates force feedback, enabling rapid adaptation to new objects. The funding round follows a broader wave of investment in physical AI, echoing recent coverage of other advanced robotics projects such as Tesla’s Roadster 2 prototype, which demonstrated wall‑climbing capabilities earlier this month.
Key facts
- Eka Robotics closed a $150 million Series A round (techcrunch.com)
- The round valued the startup at $1.45 billion post‑money (techcrunch.com)
- The robot can pick up about 1,500 objects up to 1 kg each per hour with >95% success (techcrunch.com)
- Founders are MIT professor Pulkit Agrawal and ex‑DeepMind researcher Tuomas Haarnoja (techcrunch.com)
- a16z GP Raghu Raguram said the robot is already exceeding superhuman performance on some tasks (techcrunch.com)
Sources
- [1] techcrunch.com — originally reported as “Eka is worth $1.45B thanks to a physical AI model that has experts raving”
