Human Archive, a Silicon Valley startup founded by researchers from UC Berkeley and Stanford, announced in May 2026 that it has raised $8.2 million to collect real-world physical training data for AI and robotics labs — by equipping gig workers in India with camera-mounted caps and sensor devices.
The funding round was led by Wing Venture Capital, with participation from NVP Capital, Y Combinator, and angel investors from OpenAI, Nvidia, Google, Meta, and several research institutions. The company was co-founded by Samay Maini, Rushil Agarwal, Shloke Patel, and Raj Patel — the latter two cousins — all with backgrounds in robotics, hardware, and tactile data. Raj Patel serves as CEO.
Human Archive partners with companies in India’s home services, hotel, and restaurant sectors to deploy its hardware. It currently has more than 1,000 active headsets across multiple locations. When a worker arrives at a customer’s home, the customer can opt for a discounted service rate in exchange for consenting to data collection, or pay full price for an unrecorded visit. Workers are paid $1 per hour for participating — a rate the company acknowledges is lower than what some competitors offer.
Beyond video, the startup collects synchronized data from tactile gloves, full-body motion capture suits, and wrist cameras — capturing motion and tactile force alongside color and depth imagery. Wing VC partner Zach DeWitt said no other company has been able to synchronize that range of sensor data at scale.
The startup has faced friction in the market. Major Indian home services platforms Urban Company and Pronto declined to partner with Human Archive, and India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is reported to be reviewing the consent mechanisms used by startups collecting egocentric data through service workers. Human Archive says its practices comply with India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, with faces blurred and data anonymized.
The company is expanding into Southeast Asia and the United States, and is developing a platform that would allow anyone to participate in data collection. Its U.S. pilot — offering services like cleaning or cooking in exchange for data collection — is in early stages.
Source: TechCrunch