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Enigma Raises $71M to Make Robot Control as Easy as Turning a Knob

Another robotics company has jumped into the "embodied intelligence" arena—one of AI's toughest challenges: teaching models to perform tasks they were never explicitly trained for. Approaches vary wildly. Some teams analyze millions of online videos. Others run computer simulations. A few even embed sensors in gloves to capture human movements. But Enigma, which emerged from stealth on Monday, took a completely different path. Instead of focusing solely on model capabilities, they're studying how humans and machines interact—hoping to develop intuitive interfaces and even a new kind of machine brain from those interactions.

To fund this journey, Enigma raised a $71 million seed round led by Index Ventures and Ribbit Capital, with Sarah Guo from Conviction Partners also investing. The startup, less than a year old, aims to first understand how humans want to communicate with machines.

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To bring this question into the real world, Enigma is launching a large-scale online experiment: anyone around the globe can go online and interact with its 100 or so self-developed AI robots. These robots live in garages in Israel and California. They can paint with brushes, fight with swords, and lift beakers to mix liquids for simple chemical experiments. Enigma claims that from the robotic arms to the underlying models, everything is built from scratch.

The company's two co-founders are like childhood friends. Jonathan Jacoby was once called the youngest employee at Microsoft—personally recruited by Wiz founder Assaf Rappaport when he was young. His friendship with Guy Nave began when they competed in hacking competitions as teenagers. They later worked together in Israel's elite 8200 unit on cybersecurity research, becoming close friends. When they decided to start a business last year, they deliberately chose robotics—a field they weren't experts in, but one known for containing the most fascinating unsolved problems in tech. They gathered a group of people from the Israeli tech circle whom Jacoby called "the smartest friends"—people from top AI labs, math competition gold medalists, and even a few who had been convinced to drop out of their doctoral programs.

Shardul Shah, a partner at Index Ventures, was particularly impressed by this "outsider" spirit: "Insiders may start with teleoperation or dexterity, but Enigma asks a very different question—what should the ultimate experience be?" In Jacoby's view, the interaction between humans and robots should be effortless. He gave a relatable example: if washing dishes required spending 15 minutes explaining where each item should go, people would just say "forget it, I'll do it myself"—and right now, even the most advanced models are still stuck on this point. He believes that dealing with robots should eventually be as intuitive as turning the volume knob in a car: no one likes to adjust the volume with percentages, yet they don't know whether the result is too loud or too quiet.

Key Points

  • Enigma raised $71 million in seed funding from Index Ventures, Ribbit Capital, and Conviction Partners.
  • The startup is building intuitive human-robot interfaces, aiming to make robot control as simple as turning a volume knob.
  • They launched a global online experiment where anyone can control their AI robots remotely.
  • Co-founders Jonathan Jacoby and Guy Nave are cybersecurity veterans with no prior robotics expertise, bringing an outsider perspective.
  • Enigma's robots are built from scratch, including hardware and software, and can perform tasks like painting, sword fighting, and chemical experiments.