XDOF, co-founded by UC Berkeley researchers Philipp Wu (CEO) and Fred Shentu (CTO) in 2024, is in talks for a Series B at a valuation of approximately $1.2 billion led by 8VC, according to sources with knowledge of the deal. The startup had raised a $70 million Series A in June with participation from Thrive Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Lux, and Spark Capital, and wasn't originally planning to raise again so soon. However, rapid growth with annualized revenue approaching $50 million prompted VCs to approach the company about a new round. The terms remain non-final and could change.
XDOF builds data pipelines, collection tools, and annotation systems that frontier AI labs and robotics companies need, functioning as an outsourced data-supply chain for the robotics industry. As a PhD student, Wu encountered barriers due to the lack of large-scale robot training data, leading to the creation of GELLO, a low-cost teleoperation system allowing human operators to control robotic arms remotely to generate training data. This research formed the foundation for XDOF, which investors describe as the Scale AI or Mercor for physical robotics.
Unlike language models trained on internet data, physical robots lack an equivalent real-world dataset, making data collection a critical bottleneck. XDOF is partnering with UC Berkeley's AI Research lab to release what it believes is the largest collection of high-quality robot training data, called ABC, combining remote robot teleoperation with human collectors wearing sensors to record everyday tasks. The startup plans to hire and train data collectors worldwide and currently works with 20 customers, including several frontier AI labs.