Lyte, a physical AI startup building sensing and perception technology for robots, has raised $165 million in Series C funding at a $1.6 billion post-money valuation.

The financing, led by Maverick Silicon, brings Lyte’s total raised to $272 million. Fidelity Management And Research Co., which led Lyte’s Series B, also participated in the Series C, along with Atreides Management, Key1 Capital, Ora Global (formerly Exor Ventures), and additional existing and new investors.

The Sunnyvale, California-based company was founded in 2021 by Alexander Shpunt, Arman Hajati and Yuval Gerson — a trio of former Apple engineers who worked on the iPhone giant’s advanced sensing and perception technologies. Shpunt had also previously co-founded PrimeSense, a startup whose 3D-sensing technology powered Microsoft Kinect before Apple acquired the company in 2013.

The trio’s past work helped bring 3D perception to the mainstream and later became a foundation for Apple’s Face ID technology.

Lyte is building custom silicon, 4D sensing, RGB, motion awareness and AI software to help robots sense where they are and what is moving around them. Initially, its customers are primarily in the warehousing and manufacturing industries.

The startup operated in stealth until earlier this year when it emerged and announced it had raised $107 million in Series A and B funding.

‘A new kind of perception’

Alexander Shpunt, CEO and co-founder of Lyte AI. (Courtesy photo)

“Physical AI will create entirely new categories of robots, and every one of them will need to understand the world around it,” CEO Shpunt told Crunchbase News via email. “That requires a new kind of perception: precise, real-time understanding of geometry and motion that machines can trust enough to act on. We built Lyte to become the perception foundation for that future.”

Funding in the physical AI space has exploded in recent years. In the first half of 2026, global venture funding in the space totaled $47.4 billion across 521 deals, per Crunchbase data. That’s up dramatically — almost 4x — compared to the second half of 2025 when physical AI startups raised $12 billion across 470 deals. It’s also up significantly — by nearly 80% — from the $26.4 billion raised across 436 deals in the first half of 2025.

Andrew Homan, managing partner at Maverick Silicon, joined Lyte’s board of directors as part of the funding round.

“Lyte is building a foundational sensing platform that enables a wide range of robots to perceive and understand the world around them,” he said in a release. “The breadth and diversity of early customer demand strengthen our conviction that Lyte is poised to become one of the defining technology companies of the robotics era.”

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Global Physical AI Venture Funding In 2026

‘A new kind of perception’

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