Lyte
Reviewed Updated Sep 2, 2026This profile is AI-generated. If you spot an error, please help us fix it by sharing a URL to the correct information.
Founders
About
Lyte is a Sunnyvale, CA-based physical AI startup founded in 2021 by former Apple engineers who previously worked on sensing and perception technologies 12. The company builds custom silicon, multimodal sensors (4D coherent vision, RGB, motion), and spatial AI software that lets robots perceive their environment; its LyteVision platform won CES 2026 Best of Innovation in Robotics 2. Co-founder and CEO Alexander Shpunt previously co-founded PrimeSense, whose 3D-sensing technology powered Microsoft Kinect before Apple’s 2013 acquisition 1. Initial customers are in warehousing and manufacturing 1.
Funding History
| Date | Round | Amount | Lead | Co-investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-02 | Series C | $165M | Maverick Silicon | Fidelity Management & Research, Atreides Management, Key1 Capital, Ora Global (formerly Exor Ventures) 124 |
| 2026-01-05 | Seed + Series A/B (combined, disclosed at stealth exit) | $107M | Undisclosed | Undisclosed 3 |
Post-money valuation at Series C: $1.6B 12. Total capital raised since 2021: $272M 12. As part of the Series C, Andrew Homan (Managing Partner at Maverick Silicon) joined Lyte’s board of directors 2.
What Investors Say
Andrew Homan, Managing Partner at Maverick Silicon: “Lyte is building a foundational sensing platform that enables a wide range of robots to perceive and understand the world around them.” 2
Avigdor Willenz, Chairman of Lyte: “Owning the silicon separates companies that define a category from those that participate in one.” 2
What Founders Say
Alexander Shpunt (CEO & Co-Founder): “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.” 12
Alexander Shpunt (CEO & Co-Founder): “Physical AI has a sensing problem before it has a model problem. A robot cannot act safely on data that does not faithfully describe the world.” 2
Sources
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Crunchbase News, “Former Apple Engineers’ Physical AI Startup Lyte Raises $165M Series C Led By Maverick,” September 2, 2026. Accessed September 2, 2026. https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/robotics-ai-startup-lyte-seriesc-raise-maverick/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
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Lyte company news, “Series C” (official announcement page), September 2, 2026. Accessed September 2, 2026. https://lyte.ai/news/series-c↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
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Lyte company news, “Lyte Emerges from Stealth with $107 Million to Build the Perception Foundation for Physical AI,” January 5, 2026. Accessed September 2, 2026. https://lyte.ai/newslyteemergesfromstealth↩
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Pulse 2.0, “Lyte Raises $165 Million Series C,” September 2026. Accessed September 2026. https://pulse2.com/lyte-raises-165-million-series-c/↩