SYNCERE, a company developing AI-powered home robotics, has raised $11 million in pre-seed funding led by a16z Speedrun. The round also included Draper Associates, Physical World, Sequel, SeaX Ventures and other investors.
The company will use the funding to accelerate deliveries of its LUME home robot, expand manufacturing capacity and develop its physical AI technology for new commercial applications.
Founded less than a year ago by roboticists Dr. Aaron Tan and Dr. Angus Fung, SYNCERE has moved LUME from concept to production and into customers’ homes. The product was named one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2026 and has generated millions of dollars in pre-order demand, according to the company.
“Home robotics has a deployment problem disguised as a data problem,” said Dr. Aaron Tan, co-founder and CEO of SYNCERE. “Robots need real-world data to become reliable, but they can’t get into people’s homes until they’re reliable. We built LUME to break that cycle. By creating a robot that people already want in their homes as a beautiful, functional lamp, we can deploy earlier, learn from real households, and improve autonomy over time. Every LUME we ship makes our technology smarter, and every software update makes the same robot more useful.”
LUME Combines a Floor Lamp With a Home Robot
LUME is designed to function as both a sculptural floor lamp and a robot that performs household tasks. Starting at $2,699, it can move around the home and handle chores such as folding laundry, tidying rooms and making beds.
Customers can use LUME as a lamp from the beginning, then demonstrate how they want tasks completed. SYNCERE is developing a simple onboarding process that will allow the robot to learn household preferences and adapt to different homes.
“What stood out to us about SYNCERE is that the company has designed distribution and learning together,” said Andrew Chen, General Partner at a16z Speedrun. “They have moved remarkably quickly, built a product with the potential to reach a broad consumer and commercial market, and demonstrated meaningful demand before first shipments. Getting robots into real homes earlier creates a fundamentally different path to improving household autonomy.”
The company plans to expand LUME’s capabilities through software updates, allowing the robot to perform more tasks over time without requiring new hardware.
SYNCERE’s team includes researchers from Stanford, Harvard, the University of Toronto and UC Berkeley, along with professionals with engineering and design experience at companies such as Nuro, AMD, GM and Apple.
Based in Palo Alto, California, SYNCERE is developing technology that combines robotic manipulation, perception and local AI computing to bring intelligent robots into everyday homes.
