3 min learnJun 20, 2026 07:40 PM IST
Most individuals know VLC Media Participant because the free video participant with the enduring orange traffic-cone brand. Now, its lead developer, Jean-Baptiste Kempf, is constructing expertise for a really totally different future: one full of robots, drones, and AI-powered machines.
Kempf’s startup, Kyber, has raised $5 million in funding led by Lightspeed Enterprise Companions to develop software program that allows real-time management of distant units.
The Paris-based firm is constructing an infrastructure layer that synchronises video, audio, sensor knowledge, and management inputs with minimal latency. The objective is to make it simpler to function robots, drones, and different related units from anyplace on the earth.
In response to Kempf, the platform is designed for conditions the place the operator, computing assets, and bodily system are all situated in other places.
“When you management issues in the true world, each millisecond issues,” he mentioned.
The expertise attracts closely from video-streaming experience, an space the place Kempf constructed his status by VLC and later as chief expertise officer at cloud gaming firm Shadow. Kyber initially started as a aspect undertaking centered on decreasing lag in distant interactions.
The rise of bodily AI has elevated curiosity in such expertise. Enterprise capital corporations and expertise corporations are more and more investing in robotics programs that may carry out real-world duties autonomously, however these programs nonetheless require quick and dependable infrastructure to perform successfully.
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Assist all the pieces from software program updates to drones
Kyber believes its software program can help all the pieces from distant IT administration and software program updates to large-scale fleets of robots and drones. The corporate argues that present options had been typically constructed for particular industries and are tough to scale.
The startup at present employs 25 individuals throughout places of work in Paris, San Francisco, and Singapore. It says its expertise is already being utilized by prospects in sectors together with defence, telecommunications, robotics, and synthetic intelligence.
In contrast to many enterprise software program corporations, Kyber can be embracing an open-source strategy. The core expertise stays open supply, whereas the corporate generates income by enterprise merchandise and customised deployments.