Enigma Raises $71 Million to Rethink How Humans Control AI Robots

Robotics startup Enigma is emerging from stealth with a $71 million seed funding round and an unconventional approach to one of artificial intelligence’s biggest challenges: making robots easier for people to control.

The company, which officially launches on Monday, is developing foundation models for robotics but believes the industry’s biggest opportunity lies not only in building smarter AI models, but also in discovering more natural ways for humans to communicate with machines. To support that mission, Enigma has raised funding led by Index Ventures and Ribbit Capital, with participation from Sarah Guo of Conviction Partners.

Rather than relying solely on simulations, internet videos or specialised motion-capture systems to train robots, Enigma plans to collect data directly from people interacting with its machines. The company is launching a large-scale online experiment that allows anyone to remotely control more than 100 proprietary AI-powered robots located in facilities in Israel and California.

The robotic systems are capable of performing a variety of activities, including painting with brushes, fencing with swords and carrying out simple chemistry experiments by handling laboratory flasks. Enigma says it developed both the robotic arms and the underlying AI models in-house.

Founded by cybersecurity veterans

Enigma was co-founded by Jonathan Jacobi and Gal Niv, longtime friends who first met through hacking competitions before serving together in Israel’s elite Unit 8200, where they worked on cybersecurity research. Jacobi was previously Microsoft’s youngest-ever employee after being recruited by Wiz founder Assaf Rappaport during his time at the software company.

Although neither founder came from a traditional robotics background, they believed artificial intelligence for physical machines represented one of the technology industry’s most important unsolved problems. They assembled a team drawn from Israel’s technology ecosystem, including former AI researchers, mathematics competition winners and individuals who left doctoral programmes to join the startup.

Index Ventures partner Shardul Shah said the founders’ lack of conventional robotics experience allows them to approach the field from a different perspective. Instead of concentrating first on improving robotic capabilities such as dexterity or teleoperation, Enigma is focused on understanding the ideal experience people should have when working with robots.

Searching for a better interface

Jacobi argues that today’s robots often require so much instruction that people eventually decide completing the task themselves is faster. He compares the challenge to adjusting a car radio. Drivers instinctively turn a volume knob without thinking, whereas a more complicated interface requiring percentage adjustments would quickly become frustrating.

Enigma hopes its public experiment will identify a similarly intuitive way for humans to direct robotic systems. During testing, participants will be able to interact with the robots using different methods while the company studies which approaches feel the most natural.

The startup plans to evaluate whether users prefer communicating through text, voice, video demonstrations or more visual interactions such as tapping, dragging and dropping objects. According to Jacobi, the results could influence not only future user interfaces but also how the company’s foundational AI models are trained.

He acknowledged that the project remains highly experimental and that the company does not yet know which interaction method will prove most effective. The objective is to gather real-world behavioural data that may reveal better ways for people and robots to work together.

Commercial ambitions still developing.

WhileEnigma’ss long-term commercial strategy remains in its early stages, the founders say the company is already collaborating with organisations in healthcare, logistics and entertainment. Jacobi declined to provide additional details about those partnerships or future products.

By combining large-scale human interaction data with proprietary robotics technology, Enigma hopes to create AI systems that require far less effort to operate than today’s machines. The company believes that simplifying the way people communicate with robots could become just as important as improving the intelligence powering them.