XDOF, just three months out of stealth, is in talks for a Series B at a $1.2B valuation | TechCrunch

Robotics data startup XDOF is reportedly in advanced negotiations to secure a Series B funding round that would value the young company at approximately $1.2 billion.

Led by venture capital firm 8VC, this potential investment comes only three months after the business emerged from stealth mode following a $70 million Series A round in June. The rapid push for new capital was unexpected so soon after its previous fundraising, but it was reportedly prompted by external venture capital interest fueled by the company's massive growth, with its annualized revenue already approaching $50 million. Although representatives for both XDOF and 8VC have declined to comment on the negotiations, the final terms of the transaction remain fluid and could change.

Founded by researchers from UC Berkeley, XDOF addresses a critical bottleneck in artificial intelligence by gathering and annotating high-quality training data specifically for physical robots. While virtual large language models can train on massive volumes of text scraped from the internet, physical machinery lacks an equivalent pre-existing corpus of real-world physical interactions. To solve this, XDOF utilizes low-cost remote control systems and human collectors equipped with body sensors to record everyday activities like folding laundry or packing boxes. The startup, which already serves twenty customers including several leading AI research labs, intends to scale its operations globally by employing teams of data collectors and remote teleoperators to establish a robust data supply chain for the robotics industry.