Chris Walti once led engineering for Tesla’s humanoid Optimus. And don’t get him wrong, he’s as serious a robotics believer as there is.
But Walti also thinks investors’ cloud-nine expectations around AI and robots are miscalibrated. AI can do a lot, he says, but it can’t compensate for immature hardware and missing data.
“I do think there’s just fervor around ‘Oh, you can sprinkle AI on top of any robot and magic will ensue,’” Walti said. “Then the value will compound at the rate we’ve seen with some of these other AI companies in say, voice or text. And I don’t think that’s the case. At a high level, where some of the hype and capital is going in robotics is perhaps a little misguided… I think there’s going to be some reality checks happening in the industry over the next year.”
In Walti’s view, the winners of the robotics reality check will be the ones that address very specific “painkiller problems”—the kind of problems that cause companies acute and costly agony every day. Mytra, the company Walti cofounded in 2022 with CTO Ahmad Baitalmal, is focused on standardizing and scaling how heavy material moves across warehouses and factories, so industrial customers can reliably automate full buildings and networks. Unlike the sci-fi-like humanoids being created by some companies (including Tesla), Mytra’s product looks more like sleek but traditional warehouse robots.
Now, Mytra has raised a $120 million Series C, led by Avenir Growth, the company exclusively told Fortune. Kivu Ventures, Liquid 2, D. E. Shaw, and Offline Ventures joined as first-time investors, while existing investors like Eclipse, Greenoaks, Abstract Ventures, and Promus Ventures all doubled down. RyderVentures, the CVC of logistics giant Ryder System, is also a strategic investor.
These aren’t SaaS contracts—industrial deals start with big numbers, said Seth Winterroth, partner at Eclipse. Deals you land with large industrial customers, he added, are “tens of millions and expanding to hundreds of millions, or even billions of dollars of opportunity with that same customer. We have in our pipeline today everything we need for this company to go be a multi-billion dollar annual revenue business.”
Mytra—named for the Greek word for “matrix”—raised its last round in 2024 and had an active 2025. (It says it has multiple Fortune 500 customers but declines to disclose names.) In 2025, Mytra grew its headcount from around 30 to about 150. That growth included key executive hires like ex-Tesla director of finance Gabi Gantus as CFO and the crucial addition of former Tesla CFO Zach Kirkhorn to Mytra’s board.
“Together those two solved some of the most gnarly and tricky problems at Tesla, and we’re kind of rinsing and repeating here,” said Walti.
Walti is clear. He’s not attempting “Tesla 2.0,” but he’s certainly looking to import some of Tesla’s mindset: Ask questions, assume the status quo is wrong, and cohesion matters, so design the whole system together (not in silos).
“At Tesla, it was: Question everything, assume the state-of-the-art is garbage, try to do things differently,” said Walti. “I think there’s a little arrogance in that mindset, but there’s also a lot of freedom to treat things with blank canvas, to approach designing things together as a system.”
Mytra and the current wave of robotics companies on the rise (including Skild, which just raised at a valuation over $14 billion this week) is fundamentally geopolitical and socioeconomic. In the U.S., there are more than 400,000 open industrial jobs, which tend towards exorbitantly high turnover rates. Simultaneously, the U.S. is widely viewed as falling behind China in manufacturing.
”We’re at a point now where we haven’t fully given up manufacturing and industrial capability to China,” said Walti. “Five years from now, if the current trend continues, we’ll be at a point of no return. Right now, the U.S. can still turn the ship around. So the question I’ll ask myself is: Did we do enough? Did we pull all the levers that we could as a company?… We are by no means the full solution. We’re part of the solution, but it’s going to a full court press.”
See you tomorrow,
Allie Garfinkle
X: @agarfinks
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
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VENTURE CAPITAL
- Skild AI, a Pittsburgh, Pa.-based developer of an AI “brain” designed to control robots for any task, raised $1.4 billion in funding. SoftBank Group led the round and was joined by NVentures, Macquarie Capital, Bezos Expeditions, Disruptive, and others.
- Defense Unicorns, a Colorado Springs, Colo.-based airgap software delivery company for national security mission systems, raised $136 million in Series B funding. Bain Capital led the round and was joined by Ansa Capital, Sapphire Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, and others.
- Listen Labs, a San Francisco-based developer of an AI-powered customer interview platform, raised $69 million in Series B funding. Ribbit Capital led the round and was joined by Evantic and existing investors Sequoia Capital, Conviction, and Pear VC.
- Aikido Security, a Ghent, Belgium-based cybersecurity company, raised $60 million in Series B funding. DST Global led the round and was joined by PSG Equity, Notion Capital, and Singular.
- Novee, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based AI penetration testing platform, raised $51.5 million in funding. YL Ventures, Canaan Partners, and Oren Zeev led the round.
- depthfirst, a San Francisco-based developer of AI agents designed for software security, raised $40 million in Series A funding. Accel led the round and was joined by Alt Capital, BoxGroup, Liquid 2 Ventures, and others.
- TaleMonster Games, an Istanbul, Turkey-based gaming studio, raised $30 million in Series A funding. Arcadia Gaming Partners and a16z led the round and were joined by Point72 Ventures and General Catalyst.
- IO River, a Boston, Mass.-based developer of a content and application delivery control layer, raised $20 million in Series A funding. Venture Guides and New Era led the round and were joined by Edge Capital and others.
- SkyFi, an Austin, Texas-based earth observation technology platform, raised $12.7 million in Series A funding. Buoyant Ventures and IronGate Capital Advisors led the round and were joined by DNV Ventures, TFX Capital, Beyond Earth Ventures, and others.
- Monnai, a Los Angeles, Calif.-based identity and risk data infrastructure company, raised $12 million in funding. Motive Partners led the round and was joined by others.
- VoiceRun, a Cambridge, Mass.-based developer of AI voice agents for enterprises, raised $5.5 million in seed funding. Flybridge Capital Partners led the round and was joined by RRE Ventures and Link Ventures.
- Mö Foods, a Lohtaja, Finland-based oat-based cheese company, raised €2.4 million ($2.8 million) in funding. Nordic Foodtech VC led the round.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- Exegy, a portfolio company of Marlin Equity Partners, acquired NovaSparks, a St. Louis, Mo.-based market data and trading technology company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Rentsync, a portfolio company of Silversmith Capital Partners, acquired Urbanation, a Toronto, Ontario-based real estate insights company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Spins, backed by Warburg Pincus, acquired MikMak, a New York City-based commerce intelligence and orchestration company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Tecomet, a portfolio company of Charlesbank Capital Partners, acquired Orchid Orthopedic Solutions, a Holt, Mich.-based orthopedic medical devices company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Water Street Healthcare Partners acquired a majority stake in Pillr Health, a Boca Raton, Fla.-based company designed to optimize and streamline pharmacy operations. Financial terms were not disclosed.
EXITS
- Reverse Logistics Group acquired a majority stake in LiBCycle, a Munich, Germany-based EV battery transport company, from Mutares. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Warburg Pincus acquired a minority stake in myKaarma, a Long Beach, Calif.-based provider of service lane software for automotive dealerships, from H.I.G. Growth Partners. Financial terms were not disclosed.
IPOS
- AGI, a Campinas, Brazil-based financial services company, filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange. The company posted $1 billion in revenue for the year ended Sept. 30. Marciano Testa backs the company.
PEOPLE
- ICONIQ, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm, promoted Murali Joshi to general partner.
- Lexington Partners, a New York City-based private equity firm, promoted Peter Grape, Simon Oak, and Michael Skelly to partner.
