(Corrects to clarify the company designs software, not robotic hands, in paragraph 10)
By Krystal Hu
Feb 11 (Reuters) – Humanoid robotics startup Apptronik raised $520 million in a funding round backed by investors including Google and Mercedes-Benz, the company said on Wednesday, as it seeks to commercialize its robots for industrial use.
The round valued the Austin, Texas-based company at about $5 billion, a source familiar with the matter said. B Capital and the Qatar Investment Authority also participated in the so-called Series A extension, roughly a year after Apptronik raised $415 million.
Apptronik plans to use the fresh capital to develop new versions of its Apollo robot, ramp up production and expand its workforce beyond its current headcount of more than 300 employees. It is also planning a robot training and data collection facility in Austin and an office in California.
Chief Executive Jeff Cardenas said the company expects more deployments of humanoid robots in factories and warehouses this year and next.
The funding comes as companies race to develop human-like robots for industrial work; Tesla and Nvidia-backed Figure AI are trying to build and deploy humanoids at scale. Figure AI was recently valued at $39 billion.
Apptronik is initially targeting manufacturing and logistics customers and has commercial agreements with Mercedes-Benz and GXO Logistics. Over the longer term, it is seeking to expand into assisted care and home-use applications.
Its humanoid Apollo has both legs and wheels to navigate industrial environments. Apptronik says human-scale robots can access existing workstations and shelving, potentially replacing some task-specific industrial machines over time.
The company is also deepening its partnership with Google DeepMind, which co-develops the Gemini-based artificial intelligence models for the Apollo platform. Apptronik provides the hardware and real-world training data from its deployments, Cardenas said.
Founded in 2016 as a spinout from the University of Texas, Apptronik traces its origins to early work on NASA’s Valkyrie humanoid robot program.
Howard Morgan, a general partner at B Capital, said the company has a competitive advantage in the software design for robotic hands and has built a sizable commercial order pipeline.
“The valuation relative to its potential is more attractive than some of its peers,” Morgan said in an interview.
(Reporting by Krystal Hu in San Francisco; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)
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