Expanded Fundraising Round
University of Texas spinout Apptronik, which builds humanoid robots for companies including Google DeepMind, said on Wednesday that it has re-opened its Series A round and raised a total of $935 million. The company did not disclose its valuation, but TechCrunch reported separately that the post-money valuation is now about $5.3 billion.
Apptronik had previously announced a $350 million Series A round a year ago. The company later expanded that round to $415 million after what it described as strong demand from investors. The latest extension adds another $520 million, with funding coming from existing backers Google, Mercedes-Benz, and B Capital, along with new investors.
Valuation And Share Pricing
The company said that the additional funding does not mean it is selling the same shares at the same price as before. According to Apptronik, investors have paid progressively higher prices for shares in each extension of the round. PitchBook data cited by the company places the current valuation at roughly three times the initial Series A valuation of about $1.75 billion.
Why The Round Remains A Series A
Apptronik said it has not labeled the new funding as a Series B because it still considers itself in an early stage of development. A source close to the company said Apptronik was not actively seeking new capital and instead responded to inbound investor interest.
The company’s funding pace reflects the cost of building bipedal robots. Another company in the same field, Figure AI, has raised nearly $2 billion since it was founded in 2022 and announced an additional $1 billion round last fall.
Partnerships And Product Focus
Apptronik has partnerships with Google DeepMind, GXO, and Mercedes-Benz. The company is working on what the industry describes as embodied AI, which refers to robots that can perceive their environment and take physical action based on reasoning rather than fixed instructions. Apptronik said its robots are being built for tasks such as unloading trailers, picking warehouse inventory, and tending machinery.
Longer Development History
Although the company is still using an early-stage funding label, its work in humanoid robotics predates its formal founding. Apptronik traces its roots back to 2013, when members of the Human Centered Robotics Lab at the University of Texas at Austin competed in the NASA-DARPA Robotics Challenge with a robot called Valkyrie. Since that competition, NASA has continued to partner with Apptronik as the company has developed its own humanoid robot, named Apollo.
Featured image credits: Public Domain Pictures
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