Mecka AI is nearing a financing round led by Sequoia Capital at a valuation of about $500 million, TechCrunch reported on September 11, citing two people familiar with the deal. The round's size was not disclosed, and its terms are not final and could change.

The report comes three months after Mecka announced a $60 million round led by Framework Ventures, with participation from Menlo Ventures, SV Angel and Kindred Ventures, according to TechCrunch. Sequoia declined to comment on the proposed financing; Mecka did not respond to the publication's request.

Human activity as training material

Mecka collects and analyzes human motion data for robotics. TechCrunch describes a network of paid contributors recording everyday activities, including making coffee and repairing cars, using smartphones and body sensors.

The company's website describes Egoverse as a large-scale dataset of first-person human activity across tasks and environments. Mecka offers dataset access, task-specific collection and model evaluations, positioning itself as a data and integration provider rather than a robot manufacturer.

Its stated workflow extends beyond recording video to annotation, context, quality assurance, motion understanding and evaluation. Those steps turn recordings of physical activity into material robotics teams can use to train and assess models.

A financing report, not a closed round

The proposed deal would put fresh capital behind the infrastructure supplying robot developers, rather than a new robot design. However, the reported valuation is not a completed transaction or evidence of model performance. Neither company has publicly confirmed the new financing in the sources reviewed.