Two years from idea to unicorn is rare in any industry. In hardware, it is almost unheard of. Yet Humanoid, a UK robotics company, has pulled it off with a $152 million Series A that values the company at $1.35 billion.
The startup builds wheeled industrial robots that navigate factories and warehouses, guided by a proprietary AI system called KinetIQ. Unlike humanoid robots from Tesla or Figure, Humanoid opted for wheels instead of legs, arguing that most industrial settings reward speed and stability over terrain adaptability.
The approach has attracted blue-chip partners. SAP, Nvidia, Bosch and Siemens are all working with the company. A deal with automotive supplier Schaeffler for thousands of robots represents the largest commercial agreement publicly disclosed in the humanoid robotics space.
Prime Movers Lab led the Series A, joined by Schaeffler, Bosch, Fubon Financial and Aglae Ventures. Total funding has reached $270 million. The company plans beta customer deployments in the fourth quarter and is scaling manufacturing capacity.
CEO Artem Sokolov credits Humanoid’s speed to keeping hardware and software development under one roof, avoiding the integration headaches that slow down competitors who source components from separate suppliers.
