VLC creator's Kyber raises $5M to control robots with low latency

What happened

Paris-based Kyber emerged from stealth on June 19 with a $5M seed led by Lightspeed. Its founder is Jean-Baptiste Kempf, longtime lead developer of the open-source VLC media player.

Context and impact

Kyber ships an SDK that synchronizes video, audio, sensor data and control inputs in real time — critical for robotics and drone use cases where latency is decisive. Lightspeed is extending its bet on European physical-AI infrastructure alongside Anthropic and Mistral. The team of 25 spans Paris, San Francisco and Singapore.

Details

• $5M seed led by Lightspeed
• Core project stays open-source, enterprise tier is paid
• 25 people across three offices
• Targets: robotics, drones, remote IT