Robotics startup Eka Robotics has closed a $150 million Series A funding round, achieving a post-money valuation of $1.45 billion. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and F-Prime Capital. Founded by MIT professor Pulkit Agrawal and former Google DeepMind researcher Tuomas Haarnoja, Eka specializes in force-sensitive grippers and "vision-force-action" models trained primarily through physics-based reinforcement learning simulations. The company reports that its robotic systems can grasp approximately 1,500 items per hour weighing under 1 kilogram—significantly outpacing the human average of 600 items—with a success rate exceeding 95%. The grippers are priced under $1,000 and feature a rated lifespan of 5 million cycles. Eka is currently piloting pick-and-place and cable handling operations with multiple industrial clients.