Enigma raises $70M to make controlling robots as easy as adjusting volume

Robotics firms are addressing a core AI challenge: creating foundation models that can execute tasks beyond their explicit training. Strategies vary widely, from analyzing millions of web videos and running computer simulations to capturing human motion data via sensor-equipped gloves.

Enigma, a research lab emerging from stealth on Monday, adopts a distinct strategy. Instead of focusing solely on model capabilities, this less-than-one-year-old startup studies human-robot interactions to develop intuitive interfaces and potentially a novel robotic architecture.

To fund its mission, Enigma secured a $70 million seed round led by Index Ventures and Ribbit Capital, with participation from Sarah Guo of Conviction Partners.

To explore how humans wish to communicate with machines, Enigma is launching a large-scale experiment allowing global users to interact online with over 100 of its proprietary AI robots. Housed in hangars in Israel and California, these robots perform tasks like painting, sword fighting, and mixing liquids in chemistry experiments. Enigma states it has developed both the robotic arms and their underlying models from scratch.

Jonathan Jacobi (pictured right), Microsoft’s youngest-ever employee recruited by Wiz founder Asaf Rappaport, co-founded Enigma with his longtime friend Gal Niv (pictured left). The two met during teenage hacking competitions and became close friends while serving together in Israel’s elite Unit 8200, conducting cybersecurity research.

When Jacobi and Niv launched a startup last year, they chose to apply their technical skills to AI for robotics—a field where they lacked direct experience but believed held the most compelling unsolved tech problems.

They assembled a team of what Jacobi calls their “smartest friends” from Israel’s tech ecosystem, including alumni from top AI labs, math Olympiad winners, and several individuals who left PhD programs.

“Many robotics industry insiders are joining the next wave of embodied intelligence, but Jonathan and Gal are outsiders—they aren’t roboticists. This gives them more room for originality,” said Shardul Shah, partner at Index Ventures. “An insider might start with teleoperation or dexterity capabilities, but Enigma starts from a different place: ‘What’s the ultimate experience?’”

Jacobi told TechCrunch that Enigma aims to make human-robot interactions completely effortless.

“If you had to do your dishes and spent 15 minutes explaining to a robot where to put everything, everyone reaches the point of ‘Forget it, I’ll just do it myself,’” Jacobi said. “Right now, everyone is at that point—even with the most capable models.”

Jacobi believes manipulating robots should eventually be as intuitive as adjusting a car’s volume knob. Users would be frustrated, he argues, if they had to adjust volume by set percentages without knowing the result, rather than simply turning a dial.

Enigma hopes data from its online experiment will reveal an interface that serves as the robotics equivalent of a car volume knob. The startup’s public test will evaluate different communication methods with its robots.

“We’re going to learn a lot about what is the right way to interact with robots,” Jacobi said. “Do we want to just talk to them over text or audio? Do we want to show them an example as a video? Or maybe do we want to tap, drag, and drop?”

Jacobi admits that Enigma’s experiment is very open-ended. The hope is that by gathering real-world data on human-robot interaction, the startup will discover not only superior interfaces but better ways to train its foundational AI model.

The company might eventually determine how humans prefer to communicate with robots. But for now, its business use case remains an enigma in its own right. While Jacobi declined to share specific use cases for Enigma’s AI, he said the startup is already partnering with companies in healthcare, logistics, and entertainment.