Enigma has emerged from stealth with a $71 million seed round, led by Index Ventures and Ribbit Capital, to build foundation AI models that make robots easier to use across industries.
The startup was founded by Jonathan Jacobi, who became Microsoft’s youngest-ever employee at 17, alongside former Unit 8200 colleague Gal Niv.
Enigma is launching robots online, which it says is the world’s first live public AI robotics experience, allowing anyone to interact with real AI-powered robots remotely.
Jonathan Jacobi’s journey into artificial intelligence started unusually early. He began studying computer science at just 13, completed his degree while still in high school, and by 17 became the youngest-ever employee at both Microsoft and cybersecurity giant Check Point. After serving as an officer in Israel’s elite Unit 8200, where he met future co-founder Gal Niv, Jacobi turned his attention to what he believes is AI’s next frontier: making robots as intuitive to use as smartphones.
Enigma, the physical AI startup founded by Jacobi and Niv less than a year ago, has emerged from stealth with a $71 million seed round led by Index Ventures and Ribbit Capital, with participation from Conviction Partners and executives from OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepMind, xAI, Cognition and Wiz.
