London Robotics Startup Humanoid Raises $152 Million at a $1.35 Billion Valuation
The company, founded only last year, has Bosch as a manufacturing partner and Schaeffler as an investor. Its wheeled robot is already being tested at customer sites.
Key points
- Humanoid raised $152 million in a Series A round in 2026, reaching a post-money valuation of $1.35 billion.
- The London-based company has raised $270 million in total since founding in 2024.
- Robert Bosch GmbH will manufacture Humanoid's robots under a contract production agreement.
- Schaeffler AG, a German industrial giant, joined the round as both investor and commercial partner.
- Humanoid plans to begin rolling out its Beta robot to paying customers in the fourth quarter of 2026.
A London-based robotics startup called Humanoid, founded in 2024 under the original name SKL Robotics Ltd., has closed a $152 million Series A funding round. That is the first major outside investment round a startup raises after its initial seed money. The deal values the company at $1.35 billion before that fresh cash lands in the bank.
First reported by The Robot Report, the round brings Humanoid's total fundraising to $270 million in roughly two years of existence.
The company makes a robot called the HMND 01 Alpha Wheeled, a machine with two arms and a wheeled base that can move around a warehouse or factory floor and handle objects. It is currently available for early access testing at customer sites. A version with legs instead of wheels is also in development.
The robot runs software Humanoid calls KinetIQ, a control system that coordinates fleets of machines. A module called KinetIQ Ascend lets the robots learn from trial and error, the way a person improves a task by practising it repeatedly.
Two names in the investor list stand out. Robert Bosch GmbH, the German industrial group, signed on as a contract manufacturer, meaning Bosch factories will build the robots at scale. Schaeffler AG, another German industrial firm known for bearings and precision components, is both a financial backer and a commercial customer.
What does this mean for workers on a factory floor?
In the short term, not much changes day to day. Humanoid's robots are still in early trials, and the company does not expect to ship its Beta model broadly until late 2026. Workers in logistics, manufacturing and retail are the sectors the company names first, so those industries will see pilots before anyone else. The robots are designed to handle repetitive physical tasks, and the company frames them as tools to fill labour gaps rather than direct replacements.
Humanoid is entering a crowded field. Germany's NEURA Robotics GmbH recently opened a Series C round targeting $1.4 billion. American firm Apptronik closed a $520 million round in February 2026. Agility Robotics went public via a SPAC merger, a type of stock-market listing that uses a shell company, raising $620 million in June 2026.
Most of that capital is still concentrated at the early investment stages, which tells you the industry is moving from lab prototypes to real factory pilots but has not yet reached mass deployment.
Humanoid says it will use the new money to build its next robot platform, begin mass production of its wheeled model, and keep developing the KinetIQ software.
