Chris Walti led the engineering design of Tesla’s humanoid Optimus Prime. Don’t get him wrong, he’s a big believer in robotics.
But Walti also thinks investors are misplaced in their cloud-nine expectations for artificial intelligence and robots. AI can do a lot, he said, but it can’t make up for immature hardware and lost data.
“I do think there’s a perception of ‘Oh, you can sprinkle AI on any robot and magic will follow,'” Volti said. “Then the value will compound at the rate that we’ve seen with some other AI companies on the voice or text side. But I don’t think that’s the case. At a high level, some of the hype and capital around robotics may be a little misleading… I think the industry will get some reality checks next year.”
The way Walti sees it, the winners of the robot reality test will be those who solve a very specific “painkiller problem”—one that causes severe and costly pain to companies every day. Mytra, a company Walti co-founded in 2022 with CTO Ahmad Baitalmal, is focused on standardizing and expanding the way heavy materials move between warehouses and factories so that industrial customers can reliably automate entire buildings and networks. Unlike the sci-fi humanoids created by some companies, including Tesla, Mytra’s products look more like sleek but traditional warehouse robots.
The company exclusively revealed that Mytra has now raised $120 million in Series C financing led by Avenir Growth wealth. Kivu Ventures, Liquid 2, DE Shaw and Offline Ventures joined as first-time investors, while existing investors including Eclipse, Greenoaks, Abstract Ventures and Promus Ventures all doubled down. RyderVentures, the logistics giant’s CVC Ryder Systemis also a strategic investor.
Eclipse partner Seth Winterroth said these are not SaaS contracts – industrial deals all start with big numbers. He added that the deals you do with large industrial customers “are tens of millions of dollars, and that scales into hundreds of millions of dollars, even billions of dollars of opportunity. Today, we have everything that this company needs to become a multi-billion-dollar business.”
Mytra (named after the Greek word for “matrix”) raised its last round of funding in 2024 and has been active in 2025. (The company says it has multiple Fortune 500 customers but declined to name them.) In 2025, Mytra’s headcount grew from about 30 to about 150 employees. This growth includes the hiring of key executives, including former executives.Tesla Chief Financial Officer Gabi Gantus becomes chief financial officer, and former Tesla CFO Zach Kirkhorn also joins the Mytra board of directors.
“Together these two men have solved some of Tesla’s toughest problems, and we rinse and repeat here,” Volti said.
Vardy knew it. He’s not trying to “Tesla 2.0,” but he’s certainly hoping to bring in some of Tesla’s mindset: asking questions, assuming the status quo is wrong, and cohesion is important, so designing the whole system together (not in silos).
“At Tesla, it’s: question everything, assume that the most advanced technology is garbage, try to do things differently,” Volti said. “I think there’s a bit of arrogance in that mentality, but there’s also a lot of freedom to approach things with a blank canvas and design things together as a system.”
Mytra and the current wave of rising robotics companies (including Skild, which just launched Valuation surpasses $14 billion this week) are fundamentally geopolitical and socioeconomic. There are more than 400,000 open industrial jobs in the United States, and turnover rates in these jobs tend to be very high. At the same time, the U.S. is widely seen as lagging behind China in manufacturing.
“We are not completely giving up manufacturing and industrial capabilities to China yet,” Vardy said. “Five years from now, if current trends continue, there will be no turning back. Now, America can still turn things around. So the question I ask myself is: Have we done enough? Have we as a company pulled all the levers? … We are by no means the complete solution. We are part of the solution, but that will be subject to the pressure of the full court.”
See you tomorrow,
Ellie Garfunkel
X： @agarfinks
e-mail: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
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venture capital
– separation AIa Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based developer of artificial intelligence “brains” designed to control robots to perform any task, has raised $1.4 billion in funding. Softbank group Lead this round and join venture capital firm, Macquarie capital, Bezos Adventure Tour, destructiveand others.
– defense unicorna Colorado Springs, Colo.-based air-gapped software delivery company for national security mission systems, raised $136 million in Series B funding. Bain capital Lead this round and join Ansa capital, sapphire venture capital, courage fair Partnersand others.
– listen laboratoryis a San Francisco-based developer of an artificial intelligence customer interview platform that raised $69 million in Series B funding. rebound capital Led the round with participation from Evantic and existing investors redwood capital, convictionand Pear VC.
– Aikido SafetyThe Ghent, Belgium-based cybersecurity company has raised $60 million in Series B funding. daylight saving time global Lead this round and join paris saint germain fair, concept capitaland singular.
– NoviAn artificial intelligence penetration testing platform based in Tel Aviv, Israel, raised $51.5 million in funding. YL venture capital, Canaan Partnersand oren Zev Lead this round.
– depth firstis a San Francisco-based developer of software security AI agents that raised $40 million in Series A funding. accelerator Lead this round and join substitute capital, Box Group, liquid 2 venture capitaland others.
– legendary monster gameThe Istanbul, Turkey-based game studio has raised $30 million in Series A funding. Arcadia gamble Partners and a16z Lead this round and join 72 points venture capital and General catalyst.
– IO riveris a Boston, MA-based developer of content and application delivery control layers that has raised $20 million in Series A funding. Start a business guide and new era Lead this round and join edge capital and others.
– SkeffyAustin, Texas-based earth observation technology platform raised $12.7 million in Series A funding. buoyancy venture capital and Iron Gate Capital Advisors Lead this round and join Det Norske Veritas venture capital, Fox capital, Exceed Earth venture capitaland others.
– coinan identity and risk data infrastructure company based in Los Angeles, California, raised $12 million in funding. motivation Partners led the round and were joined by others.
– Voice operationis a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based developer of enterprise artificial intelligence voice agents that has raised $5.5 million in seed funding. Flybridge capital Partners Lead this round and join RRE venture capital and association venture capital.
– mo foodis an oatmeal cheese company based in Lohtaja, Finland, which raised €2.4 million ($2.8 million) in funding. Nordic Food Tech Ventures Lead this round.
private equity
– Esseguia portfolio company marlin fair Partnersobtained nova sparka market data and trading technology company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
– rent synchronizationa portfolio company silversmith capital Partnersobtained urbanizationa real estate insights company based in Toronto, Ontario. Financial terms were not disclosed.
– rotate,Depend on warburg Pincusobtained Mi’kmawa business intelligence and orchestration company based in New York City. Financial terms were not disclosed.
– Tecometa portfolio company charles bank capital Partnersobtained orchid orthopedics solutionis an orthopedic medical device company located in Holt, Michigan. Financial terms were not disclosed.
– water street health care Partners Obtain a majority stake pill number healthyis a Boca Raton, Florida-based company that optimizes and streamlines pharmacy operations. Financial terms were not disclosed.
quit
– Cancel logistics group Obtain a majority stake Lithium batteryan electric vehicle battery transportation company based in Munich, Germany, from Mutares. Financial terms were not disclosed.
– Warburg Pincus Acquired a minority stake my kamais an automotive dealer service channel software provider based in Long Beach, California, from HIG Growth Partners. Financial terms were not disclosed.
initial public offering
– general artificial intelligenceThe Campinas, Brazil-based financial services company filed to list on the New York Stock Exchange. The company reported revenue of $1 billion for the year ended Sept. 30. Marciano seed coat Support the company.
people
– Iconica San Francisco-based venture capital firm that promotes Mulally City Chronicles to the general partner.
– Lexington Partnersis a private equity firm headquartered in New York City, peter Grape, Simon oakand Michael Skelly Partners.