# Max Cao

> Max Cao is the co-founder and CEO of Jacobi Robotics, an Emeryville, California startup building AI-first software that programs industrial robot arms up to 20x faster. A mechanical engineer trained at Imperial College London and UC Berkeley's BAIR Lab under Ken Goldberg, and a former McKinsey consultant, Cao left academia to attack a problem most people never see: the way robots are programmed has barely changed since the 1980s. Jacobi's motion-planning technology cuts deployment from a month to under a day, claims 1000x less compute, and handles the singularities that freeze robot arms mid-task. The company launched publicly in July 2024 with a $5M seed round led by Moxxie Ventures.

- **Role:** Co-Founder and CEO at Jacobi Robotics
- **Organizations:** Jacobi Robotics, McKinsey & Company, UC Berkeley (BAIR Lab), Imperial College London
- **Education:** MEng, Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London, Mechanical Engineering / research at BAIR Lab under Prof. Ken Goldberg, UC Berkeley
- **Known for:** Co-founded and leads Jacobi Robotics as CEO., Raised a $5M seed round (July 2024) led by Moxxie Ventures, with Foothill Ventures, Humba Ventures, and The House Fund., Helped build motion-planning technology that claims to program robots up to 20x faster and use 1000x less computational time, cutting deployment from a month to under a day.

## Career timeline

- **High school** — Attempted to found a company that 'did essentially what Slack does today.'
- **University** — Tried to build a working rocket engine prototype at home with a friend; learned 'the road from idea to prototype is long.'
- **Pre-Jacobi** — Worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company.
- **Pre-Jacobi** — Conducted robotics research at UC Berkeley's BAIR Lab under Prof. Ken Goldberg, focused on manipulation and motion planning.
- **2022** — Co-founded Jacobi Robotics with Yahav Avigal, Lars Berscheid, Jeff Ichnowski, and Ken Goldberg.
- **2023** — Secured ~$1M pre-seed funding; pilots with Formic and a major consumer electronics company.
- **2024-07** — Jacobi Robotics launched publicly with a $5M seed round led by Moxxie Ventures.

## Achievements

- Co-founded and leads Jacobi Robotics as CEO.
- Raised a $5M seed round (July 2024) led by Moxxie Ventures, with Foothill Ventures, Humba Ventures, and The House Fund.
- Helped build motion-planning technology that claims to program robots up to 20x faster and use 1000x less computational time, cutting deployment from a month to under a day.
- Software supports major robot arm vendors including ABB, Fanuc, Universal Robots, and Yaskawa.
- Speaker at RoboBusiness.
- Summited the Matterhorn in Switzerland.

## Latest updates

- **2024-07** — Jacobi Robotics emerged from stealth with a $5M seed round and launched its AI motion-planning platform.

## Links

- Website: https://jacobirobotics.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/max-cao
- GitHub: https://github.com/jacobirobotics

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/max-cao
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-22