Enigma raised $70M to let anyone online control its robots and figure out how humans actually want to talk to machines

This article was published on July 27, 2026 The startup built 100+ proprietary robots in hangars in Israel and California. Anyone can control them online. The founders are ex-Unit 8200 hackers, not roboticists. Enigma raised $70M seed from Index and Ribbit to study human-robot interaction at scale. 100+ proprietary robots controllable online. Founded by Microsoft’s youngest-ever employee and his Unit 8200 co-founder. Enigma, a robotics research lab less than a year old, is emerging from stealth with a $70 million seed round led by Index Ventures and Ribbit Capital, with participation from Sarah Guo’s Conviction Partners. The startup is not building a foundation model to make robots more capable. It is studying how humans actually want to communicate with robots, on the theory that the interface problem is more important than the capability problem. To test this, Enigma is launching a public experiment: anyone online can control more than 100 of its proprietary robots housed in hangars in Israel and California. The robots can draw with paintbrushes, fight each other with swords, and perform simple chemistry by mixing flasks. Enigma built both the robotic arms and their underlying mo