Just three months after completing its Series A funding, XDOF has reportedly entered negotiations for a new funding round. According to insiders, the startup, which collects real-world teleoperation data for general-purpose robots, is in talks to raise a Series B round at a valuation of approximately $1.2 billion, led by 8VC.
The company was co-founded in 2024 by University of California, Berkeley researchers Philipp Wu and Fred Shentu. TechCrunch previously reported that XDOF raised $70 million in an A-round financing in June, with investors including Thrive Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Lux, and Spark Capital.
Revenue growth drives new rounds of negotiations.
According to insiders, XDOF did not originally plan to raise additional funding so soon, but the company’s rapid growth—annualized revenue nearing $50 million—has attracted interest from multiple venture capital firms, prompting new negotiations.
However, the terms of the transaction have not yet been finalized, and it is currently unclear whether the total funding amount and valuation include the new capital. Neither XDOF nor 8VC responded to requests for comment.
Robot data supply chain
XDOF's business focus is on building data pipelines, collection tools, and annotation systems for cutting-edge AI labs and robotics companies. It aims to transform previously difficult-to-build data processes into an outsourced "data supply chain."
Co-founder Wu previously found in research that one of the biggest challenges in training robots is the lack of sufficient real-world data. To address this, XDOF developed the low-cost teleoperation system GELLO, which enables humans to remotely control robotic arms and generate training data.
Expand the data collection network
XDOF is still collaborating with the AI Research Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, to release its ABC robot training dataset. The company states that this may be the largest high-quality robot training dataset available today.
To collect this data, XDOF combines remote teleoperation with wearable sensor acquisition. The company plans to hire and train a global data collection team comprising remote operators and wearable motion data collectors. Previously, XDOF stated that it has partnered with 20 clients, including several leading AI laboratories.