Humanoid raises $152M at $1.35B valuation, Europe's first humanoid robotics unicorn

Humanoid, a UK-based company focused on industrial humanoid robotics, announced today that it has raised $152 million（約240億円） in Series A funding at a $1.35 billion（約2200億円） post-money valuation. This brings the company's total capital raised to date to $270 million（約430億円）. The round was led by Prime Movers Lab, a venture capital firm specializing in breakthrough scientific startups, with participation from industrial partners Schaeffler and Bosch, as well as Fubon Financial Holding Venture Capital and Aglaé Ventures.

The company has achieved remarkable traction in a short timeframe. Founder and CEO Artem Sokolov noted that in just two years, Humanoid has grown from an idea to becoming Europe's first pure-play humanoid robotics unicorn, partnered with major industrial firms including SAP, Nvidia, Bosch, and Siemens. Most significantly, Humanoid recently signed what it describes as the industry's largest publicly announced commercial agreement with Schaeffler for large-scale deployment of thousands of humanoid robots in manufacturing environments.

The new capital will support several key initiatives. Humanoid plans to develop and launch its next-generation humanoid robotics platform, begin rolling out Beta version robots starting in Q4 2026 for deployment across logistics, manufacturing, retail, and other sectors, and start mass manufacturing of wheel-based humanoid robots. The company is also advancing its proprietary AI brain, KinetIQ, with the goal of creating a general-purpose robot for industrial applications. According to the company, this vertically integrated approach—combining proprietary robotics hardware with its own AI system—enables robots to understand, reason, and execute complex physical tasks in real industrial environments.

Investor confidence reflects a broader shift in market perception. Klaus Rosenfeld, CEO of Schaeffler, stated that humanoid robotics is rapidly moving from a visionary concept to industrial reality, and that by combining Schaeffler's manufacturing expertise with Humanoid's physical AI platform, the companies are backing one of the most exciting technological frontiers. Zia Huque, general partner at Prime Movers Lab, predicted that humanoid robotics will be one of the defining technologies of the next decade and expects the field to consolidate around a handful of category leaders across the US, Europe, and China, with Humanoid positioned as one of a small cadre of companies that will define the sector in Europe and beyond. The valuation reflects both Humanoid's execution speed and growing confidence that what was once considered a long-term research experiment is now deployable industrial technology addressing real labor shortages.

Humanoid's $152 million（約240億円） Series A marks a watershed moment for European robotics, demonstrating that the region can compete with the United States and China in a sector previously dominated by those markets. The company's valuation—reaching unicorn status in just two years from founding—reflects not just investor enthusiasm but tangible commercial traction: partnerships with four Fortune 500 firms and an industry-leading deployment agreement with Schaeffler signal that industrial customers are moving beyond proof-of-concept to real-world adoption. The backing of established industrial heavyweights like Bosch and Schaeffler themselves (both as investors and commercial partners) suggests confidence that humanoid robotics has crossed a threshold from experimental technology to deployable solution. This is significant because it indicates the market perceives a path to solving acute labor shortages in manufacturing and logistics—concrete operational problems rather than speculative futures.

The funding allocation speaks to Humanoid's strategic priorities: beyond developing its next-generation platform, the company is investing heavily in the transition from prototyping to scale. The planned Q4 2026 rollout of Beta robots across multiple sectors, combined with the start of mass manufacturing for wheel-based models, suggests the company is preparing for near-term commercial ramp. The emphasis on KinetIQ—a proprietary AI brain that combines with vertically integrated hardware—positions Humanoid to defend margins and differentiation as the market scales. For European tech investors and industrial companies, this validates the region's capacity to lead in Physical AI (the application of AI to robotic systems), a field previously seen as locked to Silicon Valley and China.

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