The robotics industry has poured billions into making machines stronger and more dexterous, but one startup believes the real unlock is making them easier to direct. Enigma emerged from stealth Monday with a $71 million seed round led by Index Ventures and Ribbit Capital to test interfaces that let untrained people operate robots on their first try.
The company is running a public experiment where anyone can remotely pilot more than 100 robots housed in hangars across Israel and California. Every command and correction from those sessions flows into a dataset that could define the next generation of human-robot control systems.
Sarah Guo’s Conviction Partners also joined the round, signaling that sophisticated AI investors see the interface gap as a structural bottleneck. The bet comes during a record funding year where robotics startups have already raised $18.8 billion globally, surpassing all of 2025.
Co-founders Jonathan Jacobi and Gal Niv built the company around a simple intuition drawn from their backgrounds in Unit 8200 and competitive hacking. They want operating a machine to feel as natural as reaching for a volume dial — a standard the industry has not yet defined.
