Rivian spin-out Mind Robotics secures $500 million Series A

Mind Robotics, an industrial robotics lab spun out of electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian, announced on Wednesday that it has raised $500 million in a Series A funding round—an early-stage venture capital funding round. The round was co-led by venture capital firms Accel and Andreessen Horowitz. According to The Wall Street Journal, the financing brings the startup’s valuation to around $2 billion.

The capital injection follows a rapid series of fundraising events since the company was spun out of Rivian in November 2025:

• Seed Round: Mind Robotics previously raised $115 million in a seed round led by Eclipse.
• Series A Round: The latest $500 million round brings the company’s total fundraising to $615 million.

The startup was founded by Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe, who serves as the chairman of Mind Robotics. The company intends to use data from Rivian’s electric vehicle factory to train industrial robots to be more dexterous and adaptable, using the factory as a venue to prove the robots’ utility. According to a press release, the company was established to address a structural gap in current industrial automation solutions, where classical robotics lack the human-like dexterity and physical reasoning required for a large share of factory work.

Unlike competitors focusing on humanoid robots, such as Tesla, Mind Robotics intends to focus on traditional factory robot designs. Scaringe told The Wall Street Journal that the startup will have a large number of robots deployed by the end of this year. He dismissed the utility of humanoid designs for industrial tasks, stating, “Doing cartwheels does not create value in manufacturing.”

Mind Robotics may also collaborate with Rivian on hardware. In December, Rivian announced it had been developing its own custom silicon—proprietary semiconductor chips—to power autonomous vehicle software. Scaringe indicated that it does not require much imagination to envision Rivian selling those chips to Mind Robotics, noting that the robotics processor could work well for that purpose.

Mind Robotics is the second company Rivian has spun out recently, following Also, an electric mobility company. Also, which is developing a high-end modular e-bike and small electric cargo vehicles for Amazon, was also backed by Eclipse and subsequently raised $200 million from Greenoaks Capital at a valuation of around $1 billion.

Why it matters

Mind Robotics aims to use data from Rivian’s electric vehicle factory to train industrial robots to be more dexterous and adaptable, addressing a structural gap in current industrial automation solutions.