Dream Labs raises $90M seed to launch AI API

Dream Labs, a San Francisco startup founded by former NVIDIA GR00T researchers, raised $90 million in seed funding led by B Capital and Kindred Ventures, with participation from A. Capital, Unusual Ventures, SV Angel, Wing VC, Scribble VC and Adrian Aoun. The round coincides with the launch of the Dream API, which gives developers access to the company’s universal robot foundation model, Dream‑1.

API and Playground Release

The Dream API turns a robot’s camera feed and plain‑English instruction into motor commands, letting developers program any supported two‑arm robot without building custom AI. The service is priced at $3 per hour for the full version, dropping to 75 cents per hour for a lightweight variant. Dream Labs also offers Fine‑Tuning‑as‑a‑Service, where manufacturers can submit demonstration videos to create a tailored model within hours, and has launched a Robot Playground that lets anyone issue commands in a web browser and watch a live robot respond.

Dream‑1 learns from videos of people performing everyday tasks, using visual prediction to determine the next action a robot must take. Designed to work with any two‑armed robot equipped with parallel grippers, the model can control over 20 hardware partners, handling tabletop tasks like picking, placing and folding laundry. The company plans to extend support to wheeled mobile robots and more dexterous, human‑like hands.

Investors say the new capital will fund compute resources needed to expand Dream‑1’s capabilities and to test its performance across diverse hardware. Dream Labs hopes that a transferable AI model will ease automation in factories and warehouses, reducing the need for task‑specific programming and potentially lowering deployment costs. However, the technology still needs to prove its reliability in varied real‑world conditions and with more demanding applications.