VLC founder launches Kyber with $5M to tackle robotics latency

Kyber addresses the critical networking bottleneck in physical AI where traditional protocols like WebRTC cannot reliably meet the sub-10ms requirements of remote machine actuation. By repurposing high-efficiency video streaming logic for machine control, Kempf's team is decoupling compute from physical hardware, allowing AI models to operate robots from centralized servers without lag-induced failure. This creates a new B2B segment in the streaming stack: the 'control plane,' where video throughput is secondary to command-and-control synchronization. Watch for Kyber’s adoption in defense and warehouse robotics as a precursor to global enterprise deployments.

The emergence of Kyber aligns with a broader industry shift toward 'Physical AI,' a sector projected by Roland Berger in May 2026 to reach a market value of $300 billion by 2035. Current teleoperation methods, such as those used by Figure AI for its BMW manufacturing deployments, frequently rely on internal proprietary pipelines to manage the high-bandwidth sensor data required for humanoid coordination. While established protocols like WebRTC remain the standard for human-to-human communication, recent benchmarking reported by IEEE in 2025 indicates that QUIC-based protocols offer approximately 30% lower latency and 60% faster connection startups, making them more suitable for machine-to-machine tasks. This technical gap has led to a fragmented ecosystem where most robotics firms must build their own custom communication stacks. Per Capgemini Research Institute in June 2026, roughly 67% of manufacturing executives now view physical AI as a critical driver of competitiveness, yet identify data infrastructure as a primary barrier to scaling beyond small test fleets. Kyber's move to provide a standardized, open-source SDK directly addresses this infrastructure void. Other players in the space, such as Viam, have taken a different architectural approach by combining gRPC for structured commands with WebRTC for video, according to a June 2025 technical report. However, Kyber’s focus on 8-millisecond latency positions it at the high-performance end of the market, specifically for use cases where even minor jitter can result in mechanical failure or safety risks in public spaces.