New York-based artificial intelligence start-up Antioch, co-founded by New Zealander Harry Mellsop, has completed a $32 million funding round, marking its latest capital raise since launching in late 2022. The Series A round, whose post-money valuation has not been disclosed, follows a previous seed round in April that valued the company at $60 million. Antioch revealed that its clients include Amazon, specifically for its Ring home security cameras, as well as manufacturing automation firm LaunchPad Build AI. The company has also announced strategic partnerships with technology giants Nvidia and cloud services provider Nebius.
Antioch’s software addresses the challenges of testing AI models for physical applications, such as robotics and automated manufacturing systems. The company seeks to replace traditional, resource-intensive testing methods, which often involve expensive and time-consuming physical simulations in real-world environments. According to Mellsop, the testing landscape has been hindered by inefficiencies, with teams renting facilities or constructing elaborate mock warehouses to evaluate their systems. The Antioch platform enables the rapid creation of virtual environments and scenarios, running thousands of tests in seconds to identify software failures and optimize AI behavior without the need for costly physical trials.
Jason Mitura, Amazon’s vice president of software development and chief product officer for Ring, praised Antioch’s simulation accuracy and its impact on accelerating product development cycles. He noted that the technology’s ability to closely mirror physical test outcomes allows Amazon to rely more heavily on virtual testing, reducing increases in development costs and time.
The company’s latest funding round was led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm Greylock Partners, known for early investments in major tech companies such as Facebook and Airbnb. Other investors participating in the round include existing backers A*, Catagory Ventures, Box Group, and Icehouse Ventures. The round also saw contributions from prominent tech executives, including Nvidia’s Ian Andrews, Palantir’s Shyam Sankar, and Foxglove founder Adrian Macneil.
Mellsop, who previously worked as a vision engineer for Tesla’s physical AI unit and co-founded blockchain company Transpose, said the capital will support Antioch’s expansion plans, including opening a West Coast office, product development, and scaling AI compute resources. The company currently employs 12 staff and aims to double its headcount in the near term.
Antioch was founded by a team with backgrounds at leading technology firms, including Google’s DeepMind and Meta’s Reality Labs. The founders view their mission not only as a commercial opportunity but also as a strategic initiative to bolster domestic manufacturing and supply chain resilience amid global instability. Greylock general partner Saam Motamedi, who has joined Antioch’s board, emphasized the company’s potential to drive innovation in merging software with physical systems, describing it as foundational to a forthcoming industrial transformation.
Mellsop highlighted the importance of cultivating strong investor partnerships, noting that successful funding relationships often rely on established personal and professional networks formed across prior ventures. Antioch’s rapid growth and adoption in the AI robotics space underscore the industry’s broader shift toward sophisticated virtual testing environments capable of supporting complex real-world applications.