Mind Robotics, which was first revealed in late 2025, has now raised more than $1 billion to date.
In Brief Posted: 9:34 AM PDT · May 13, 2026 Sean O'Kane Rivian spinoff Mind Robotics raises another $400M Rivian’s spinoff company Mind Robotics has raised another $400 million, just two months after raising $500 million , as it works to develop industrial robotics that can further automate factory operations.
The funding round, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, was led by Kleiner Perkins. The venture arms of Volkswagen, which is partnered with Rivian on a software joint venture, and Salesforce also contributed investments.
Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe, who is chairman of Mind Robotics, told TechCrunch in March that he created the company because he felt other startups were not fully-equipped to automate industrial work. He started the project — initially known as “Project Synapse” — as an effort to build “robotics with human-like skills.” Mind Robotics had previously raised $115 million from Eclipse after it was created in 2025. The new funding round brings the total raised to more than $1 billion, and values Mind Robotics at more than $3 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Scaringe also helped create and spin out a micromobility company called Also, which has raised more than $300 million to date.
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