Jean-Baptiste Kempf, the lead developer behind VLC Media Player—the free video software downloaded more than 6 billion times—is betting that robots will soon be nearly as ubiquitous. His new startup, Kyber, has raised $5 million from Lightspeed Venture Partners to build an infrastructure layer for controlling remote devices in real time.
From video streaming to robot control
Kyber’s core software is an SDK that synchronizes video, audio, sensor data, and control inputs with minimal latency—a problem Kempf knows well from his years optimizing VLC for smooth playback. The company started as a side project while he was CTO at cloud gaming startup Shadow, and its early focus on streaming makes the VLC connection an easy one to draw.
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But IoT expertise matters just as much. Kyber tunes performance to a device’s available compute at scale, which Kempf says is the other core piece of what the company does. He told TechCrunch the platform is built for “all the use cases where the person who’s operating is not in the same place as the compute, which is not in the same place as the action.”
Why latency matters for physical AI
The startup’s name is a nod to the lightsaber crystals in Star Wars—a reference to speed. “If you control things in the real world, every millisecond matters,” Kempf said. That jump in scale also raises the stakes on observability: knowing systems are actually working will matter even more when AI agents, not people, are managing entire fleets and networks.
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Kempf says other companies with resources have built similar software for their own use cases, like remote driving. “But the largest fleets today have maybe 2,000 or 3,000 vehicles. Imagine you need to manage millions of them; that’s not the same thing.”
Open source roots, enterprise reach
True to Kempf’s open-source background, Kyber’s core project is open source, while the company sells a productized version to enterprise customers. It also offers hands-on, custom deployment through forward-deployed engineers (FDEs), similar to Palantir’s model. FDEs make up a large part of Kyber’s team of 25 full-time staffers.
The startup is headquartered in Paris with offices in San Francisco and Singapore. The company says it is already in commercial deployment with customers in defense, telecom, robotics, and AI. It has been prioritizing three segments: robotics, drones of every kind, and remote IT access, where demand has been particularly strong.
In that last segment, Kempf says Kyber aspires to be more than just a Citrix challenger—but even that comparison alone points to a sizable total addressable market. Remote IT access isn’t glamorous, but Kempf seems energized by the problem. Kyber’s careers page hints at why: “The companies that tried to solve it spent years and tens of millions building custom solutions they’ll never share. We’re building the version everyone else can use.”
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Kyber and what does it do?
Kyber is an open-source infrastructure platform that provides a software development kit (SDK) for controlling remote devices—such as robots, drones, and IoT hardware—in real time. It synchronizes video, audio, sensor data, and control inputs with very low latency.
Who is Jean-Baptiste Kempf?
Jean-Baptiste Kempf is a French software developer and serial entrepreneur best known as the lead developer of VLC Media Player, which has been downloaded more than 6 billion times. He is now the founder of Kyber.
How much funding did Kyber raise and who invested?
Kyber raised a $5 million funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, which has also backed companies like Anthropic and Mistral AI.
Is Kyber open source?
Yes, the core Kyber project is open source. The company also sells a productized version to enterprise customers and offers hands-on deployment support through forward-deployed engineers.
