July 21 (Reuters) – UK-based robotics startup Humanoid said on Tuesday it raised $152 million in a Series A funding round at a post-money valuation of $1.35 billion, as investors pour money into companies developing robots that can augment human labor.
The financing signals growing investor appetite for “physical AI” companies that combine artificial intelligence with robotics, as manufacturers and logistics companies increasingly look to humanoid robots to address labor shortages and automate repetitive industrial tasks.
• The round was led by Prime Movers Lab, with participation from Schaeffler, Bosch, Fubon Financial Holding Venture Capital and Aglaé Ventures, bringing Humanoid’s total funding to $270 million.
• The proceeds will fund development of next-generation platform, expansion of proprietary AI software platform KinetIQ, commercial deployments with industrial customers and the start of mass manufacturing of wheeled robots, Humanoid said.
• The company added that it plans to begin deploying beta robots at customer sites in the fourth quarter of this year across manufacturing, logistics, retail and other industrial sectors.
• Humanoid said it has partnerships with companies, including SAP, Nvidia, Bosch and Siemens, and recently signed an agreement for humanoid robots with Schaeffler, involving the planned deployment of thousands of robots at manufacturing facilities.
• Bosch said it would serve as Humanoid’s contract-manufacturing partner while providing technical expertise in hardware design, production and supply chain operations.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Joyjeet Das)
