Apple Alums' Robot Perception Startup Lyte Lands $165M at $1.6B Valuation
Lyte, a physical AI company developing sensing technology for robots, has closed a $165 million Series C round led by Maverick Silicon, bringing its total funding to $272 million.
Lyte, which develops physical AI systems for robot sensing and perception, has secured $165 million in Series C funding at a $1.6 billion post-money valuation. Maverick Silicon led the round, which also included participation from Fidelity Management And Research Co.—the lead investor in Lyte's Series B—alongside Atreides Management, Key1 Capital, Ora Global (formerly Exor Ventures), and other existing and new backers. The funding brings Lyte's cumulative capital raised to $272 million.
Based in Sunnyvale, California, Lyte was established in 2021 by three former Apple technologists: Alexander Shpunt, Arman Hajati, and Yuval Gerson. All three had contributed to Apple's work in advanced sensing and perception systems. Shpunt's background includes co-founding PrimeSense, whose 3D-sensing innovations powered Microsoft Kinect until Apple's 2013 acquisition of the company. The founders' earlier contributions helped establish 3D perception as a mainstream technology and later informed the development of Apple's Face ID system.
The company's technology stack combines custom silicon, 4D sensing, RGB imaging, motion detection capabilities, and artificial intelligence software designed to enable robots to locate themselves and identify moving objects in their environment. Lyte's initial market focus centers on customers in warehousing and manufacturing sectors. The startup remained in stealth mode until earlier this year, when it publicly announced that it had previously raised $107 million across Series A and Series B rounds.
'A new kind of perception'
Physical AI will create entirely new categories of robots, and every one of them will need to understand the world around it. 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.
CEO Alexander Shpunt
Investment activity in the physical AI sector has surged dramatically. During the first half of 2026, global venture capital deployed $47.4 billion across 521 deals in the space, according to Crunchbase data. This represents a nearly fourfold increase from the second half of 2025, when physical AI companies raised $12 billion across 470 transactions. The first half of 2026 also marks an approximately 80 percent jump compared to the first half of 2025, which saw $26.4 billion raised across 436 deals.
Andrew Homan, managing partner at Maverick Silicon, joined Lyte's board as part of this funding announcement. "Lyte is building a foundational sensing platform that enables a wide range of robots to perceive and understand the world around them," Homan stated 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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