Pantera leads $20 million raise for OpenMind's decentralized operating system for robots

Venture firm Pantera Capital is leading a $20 million funding round into OpenMind, a robotics and AI startup looking to link up “thinking machines” using open source and decentralized tech. Coinbase Ventures, Digital Currency Group, and Ribbit have joined as backers, among others.

“This raise brings OpenMind closer to making robotic intelligence open, interoperable, and as accessible as the internet,” the firm wrote in a statement. 

According to the release, the startup is producing a “hardware agnostic” operating system called FABRIC designed to support “the integration of intelligent machines into everyday life.” The protocol offers a way for AI-enabled robots to communicate and coordinate. 

“As more robots come online, FABRIC provides the trust layer that lets them work together — no matter who built them or where they operate,” the company wrote. “Robots using FABRIC can understand where they are, who’s nearby and what to do next.”

Jan Liphardt, CEO of OpenMind and a Stanford professor, noted that today’s robotics companies all exist in essentially siloed ecosystems. FABRIC is being built to create “an open, secure coordination layer” that can be readily installed  — creating a “shared global network” of intelligence. 

“If AI is the brain and robotics is the body, coordination is the nervous system,” Liphardt said. “Without it, there’s no intelligence — just motion. We’re building the system that lets machines reason, act and evolve together.”