Apptronik, the AI-powered humanoid robotics company, announced Tuesday the successful close of an oversubscribed $403 million Series A funding round for a robot called “Apollo,” adding an extra $53 million to the previously announced $350 million round.
The latest round was led by B Capital and Capital Factory, with participation from Google, Mercedes-Benz, Japan Post Capital, ARK Invest, Helium-3, and others joining the oversubscribed round, signaling strong market demand and investor confidence.
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Jeff Cardenas, CEO at Apptronik believes that the company’s experience of over a decade in humanoids is a primary differentiator that sets Apptronik apart from competitors like Figure, 1X, and Tesla.
“We are excited to invest in Apptronik, a company that prioritizes the implementation of humanoid robots in logistics while expanding into manufacturing and other industries,” said Yuta Ogura, Senior Manager at Japan Post Capital. Their strategy involves implementing humanoid robots in real world environments to help in industries, later gravitating towards elder care, supermarket assistance, healthcare and more.
Apptronik started out of the Human Centered Robotics Lab at the University of Texas at Austin where the members competed in the NASA-DARPA Robotics Challenge, an effort that centered around a humanoid robot called Valkyrie.
Google’s DeepMind AI team has also been working with Apptronik to build robot behavioral models. Google in a blog post said, “As part of our efforts, we’re partnering with Apptronik to build the next generation of humanoid robots with Gemini 2.0.” On March 12, Google debuted two of its AI models for robotics based on Gemini 2.0, calling it their most capable AI to date.
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Over the past 12 months, Apptronik has secured key commercial engagements with industry leaders Mercedes-Benz and GXO, while also working with Nvidia to integrate its Apollo humanoid robot into Omniverse digital twin simulations.
In February, Apptronik revealed a pilot program and strategic collaboration with Jabil, focused on manufacturing Apollo robots and deploying them in Jabil’s operations. The initiative could mark a milestone in robotic automation, with Apollo humanoids assisting in building future humanoid robots.