Robotics Data Firm Config Raises $27M Seed Funding

Config, a startup focused on creating the foundational data layer for robotic intelligence, has successfully closed an oversubscribed $27 million seed funding round. The investment, which brings the company's total raised capital to $35 million, was led by Samsung Venture Investment. This significant backing from South Korea's industrial giants underscores a strategic shift towards empowering physical AI through specialized data infrastructure.

The funding round saw participation from a formidable group of strategic investors, including Hyundai Motor's venture arm ZER01NE Ventures, LG Tech Ventures, and SKT America. Additional support came from prominent angel investor Pieter Abbeel, alongside financial backers such as Mirae Asset Ventures, Korea Development Bank, GS Futures, Kakao Ventures, and Z Ventures. The company achieved a post-money valuation exceeding $200 million.

Config's mission is to address the critical bottleneck in developing advanced robotics: the acquisition and preparation of high-quality training data. Unlike software-based AI, where vast text datasets are readily available, robot training necessitates the collection of real-world physical interactions. This process is inherently more resource-intensive, requiring specialized hardware, controlled environments, and expert human oversight. Config aims to streamline this by providing a robust data pipeline, positioning itself as the 'TSMC of robot data' – an essential enabler for the broader robotics ecosystem without directly competing with robot manufacturers.

Founded in January 2025 by CEO Minjoon Seo, a former researcher at Meta and chief scientist at Twelve Labs, alongside co-founders with deep expertise from Waymo, Google, and Naver, Config is already generating revenue. Its client base spans major manufacturers, system integrators, and companies in sectors like agriculture and defense. The company's unique approach involves transforming raw human motion data into formats optimized for robotic learning, a process CEO Seo likens to accurate language translation, ensuring models trained on this data perform effectively in real-world robotic applications.

Config has amassed over 100,000 hours of human motion data, significantly exceeding publicly available datasets. The company operates data collection facilities in Seoul and Hanoi, employing a workforce of nearly 300 individuals. This extensive data library, coupled with proprietary conversion technology, forms the core of Config's value proposition. The company is actively pursuing growth, with plans to scale its data operations to one million hours, expand its enterprise platform to achieve $10 million in ARR by the end of 2027, and introduce a cloud-based Robot-as-a-Service offering.

The substantial investment from leading South Korean conglomerates highlights the region's commitment to advancing physical AI and robotics. As global manufacturers increasingly focus on developing proprietary AI capabilities for their robotic systems, Config's role as a specialized data provider becomes increasingly vital. This funding will fuel Config's expansion and solidify its position in a rapidly evolving market, enabling more companies to accelerate their development of sophisticated and capable robots.