In a surprising turn of events, Sankaet Pathak, the founder of the now-defunct fintech startup Synapse, has announced his entry into the world of robotics with a new venture called Foundation. This move comes amidst ongoing controversy surrounding Synapse’s collapse and millions in unaccounted customer funds.
The New Venture: Foundation
Foundation, Pathak’s latest brainchild, is positioning itself as a solution to the global labor shortage. The startup’s ambitious mission is to “create advanced humanoid robots that can operate in complex environments.” Despite the unresolved issues at Synapse, Foundation has already secured $11 million in pre-seed funding, primarily from Tribe Capital.
Key Points:
- Funding: $11 million raised from Tribe Capital and angel investors
- Co-founder: Arjun Sethi, co-founder and managing director of Tribe Capital
- Goal: To “automate GDP through AI and robotics”
- Near-term objective: Develop a walking humanoid robot by year-end
The Synapse Saga
While Pathak forges ahead with Foundation, the aftermath of Synapse’s collapse continues to unfold. Synapse, which provided banking services for fintechs, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April 2024. As of July, nearly $160 million in customer deposits remained inaccessible.
Pathak, who founded Synapse in 2014 and served as its CEO until May 2024, has publicly attributed the deficit to Synapse’s former partner, Evolve Bank. However, Evolve has consistently denied responsibility, creating a complex and contentious situation for affected customers.
Looking Ahead
Foundation’s goals are undoubtedly ambitious. Pathak claims that the company’s model now “fully handles scene depth, object detection, semantic segmentation and unseen object pose estimation — exceeding what any autonomous vehicle perception stack can do.”
However, experts in the field have mixed views on the near-term feasibility of general-purpose humanoid robots. As TechCrunch’s hardware editor Brian Heater pointed out in June, there are still numerous engineering challenges to overcome.
The Bottom Line
Pathak’s pivot from fintech to robotics raises eyebrows and questions. While the potential of advanced robotics is exciting, the unresolved issues at Synapse cast a shadow over this new venture. As Foundation moves forward, it will be crucial to watch how Pathak addresses both the technological challenges ahead and the lingering concerns from his previous startup.
The tech world will be watching closely to see if Foundation can deliver on its promises and if Pathak can successfully transition from the troubled waters of fintech to the cutting edge of robotics.
