Factories still rely heavily on people for many tasks that machines cannot handle well. Traditional industrial robots are good at repetitive tasks in controlled settings, but they often struggle with jobs that require dexterity, rapid adaptation, and real-world reasoning. That gap has left a large part of industrial work difficult to automate.
Mind Robotics aims to solve that problem with AI-powered robots designed for real-world factory environments. The Palo Alto-based company has announced a $500 million Series A round to build and deploy its industrial robotics platform at scale.
The financing is being co-led by Accel and Andreessen Horowitz. The round is expected to close later this month. The new raise comes after the company secured $115 million in seed funding in late 2025, led by Eclipse Capital.
“RJ is one of the very few founders who have built and scaled a vertically integrated hardware company,” said Sarah Wang, General Partner at a16z. “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. That kind of end-to-end systems leadership is precisely what it takes to build a generational robotics company and why we’re excited to back RJ and the Mind Robotics team.”
What Mind Robotics is building
Mind Robotics was founded in 2025 by RJ Scaringe, who is also the CEO of Rivian. The company develops a full-stack industrial robotics platform designed to handle tasks that go beyond simple automation.
The company focuses on work requiring human-like dexterity, adaptability, and physical reasoning. That includes tasks in manufacturing environments where conditions can change and where standard robotics systems often fall short.
To address that, Mind Robotics is building its own mix of AI models, hardware, and deployment infrastructure.
The Rivian connection
The company operates with Rivian as both a partner and a major shareholder. That relationship gives Mind Robotics access to a large volume of manufacturing data, which can be used to train its models, as well as a real industrial environment where the systems can be tested and deployed.
The company said its work also benefits from Rivian’s electro-mechanical engineering knowledge and production experience.
“As AI enters the physical world, we believe the largest, at-scale application for advanced robotics will be across the industrial sector,” said RJ Scaringe. “Advanced robotics is going to be critical for global competitiveness, as well as addressing the substantial industrial labour shortages that exist today. We’re building robots that will perform real tasks, in real plants, at real scale. I am grateful to have partners that believe in what we are building at Mind Robotics — looking forward to having Sameer join our Board.”
“We back leaders, and this team has a track record that speaks for itself,” said Sameer Gandhi, partner at Accel. “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. RJ is a disciplined and visionary leader, and we believe AI industrial robotics enables one of the most exciting technological shifts of our time.”
