University of Texas spin-out Apptronik announced its $350 million Series A round of funding on Thursday as it was quietly building humanoid robots before it became extremely fashionable. B Capital and Capital Factory co-led the round. This is also characterized by participation from Google. Google has partnered with Apptronik to provide AI embodied in Bipedal Robots.
“What is 2025 for Apptronik and the humanoid industry demonstrating useful work in these applications with these first recruits and customers,” CEO Jeff Cardenas tells TechCrunch. “And the true commercialization and scaling that’s been happening since 2026. That’s what this raise is designed to do.”
The Austin-based startup raised a relatively modest $28 million before the round. Cardenas says his previous goal was to generate more revenue than the money raised. The eight-year-old startup he achieved during that time is what he calls goals. That revenue came from pilot transactions, including Mercedes and GXO Logistics, and by selling the robots entirely. For now, however, the goal of generating more revenue than fundraising needs to continue for a while.
Apptronik’s humanoid work dates back to 2013, three years before its establishment. Members of the Human-Centered Robotics Lab at Austin University, Texas competed for the NASA-DARPA Robotics Challenge, which focused on humanoid robots called Valkyrie. Since then, the space agency has maintained a partnership with Apptronik. The company is preparing its own generation of humanoids, including the current humanoid Apollo.
Cardenas points to its more than a decade of humanoid experience as a major differentiator between Apptronik and competitors such as 1x, Tesla and more. Boston’s dynamics and agility robots also have a long history, but Apptronik is a veteran veteran in the category compared to many competitions.
Google DeepMind
That history may explain why Google’s Deepmind AI team is working with Apptronik to build a robotic behavior model. Their “strategic partnerships” are essentially similar to others in the industry. Last week, Boston Dynamics announced its partnership with the Robot & AI Institute. It followed a similar deal between spot manufacturers and Toyota Research Institute, aimed at improving the way robots are learned.
All are indicators of much larger trends, including multiple transactions in Openai space. ChatGpt-Maker is investing in both 1X and figures. Last August, Figure announced last week that the costumes announced a new plan, but that it would further utilize the Openai model to develop natural voice conversations for its own 02 robots. In the future, we will move all of our AI development within the company.
“We’ve seen that in order to solve real-world AI at scale, we need to vertically integrate robotic AI,” Figure CEO Brett Adcock told TechCrunch last week. “You can’t outsource AI for the same reasons as you can’t outsource your hardware.”
Apptronik may ultimately make the same choice, but for now, the Google DeepMind partnership is much more sensible for startups than the additional funding needed to build a bespoke humanoid AI model in-house It’s achieved. “We believe that Google is at the top of the game right now and is building some of the best models in the world,” Cardenas says.
Make the robot work
Scaling and production are the magical words of Apptronik’s rounds. Apptronik’s current personnel are just north of 170 people and are planning a 50% increase over next year.
Still, Cardenas is practical about timelines in overly popular and unlucky categories. Cardenas tells TechCrunch that Apptronik has not yet moved past the pilot stage in one of its partnerships. It remains important for companies to take a category-measured approach to all humanoid excitement.
In the meantime, the company has a small number of ongoing pilots, including Mercedes, which is a natural choice. Automotive manufacturing is a major use case for these types of pilots, requiring tote transfers and other manual tasks on factory floors. Boston Dynamics is also working with parent company Hyundai. The illustration shows the robot deploying using a BMW. And Tesla’s Optimus can ultimately tackle the company’s own EV.
I’ll take it all home
Like many of its rivals, Apptronik is looking for ways to let Apollo work outside of its factories and warehouses. There may be a day when these robots will come home to assist with groceries, cooking, folding laundry, and other tasks that buyers would like to offload to the automata. Cardenas is even more excited about Age Tech as an important pathway for advanced robotics. Humanoids are ultimately useful as the population is older and more older people prefer to live independently.
“That’s the holy grail for me [age-tech]Cardenas says. “As a human,” he asks himself, “Where can we apply this technology to improve the human condition?”
But the Holy Grail has to wait.
For now, Apptronik, like most humanoid manufacturers, is focused on industry. Factory and warehouses are a good first step as businesses have the money and other resources needed to pilots. Scaling the manufacturing industry for these projects continues to cut prices, but as it stands, the system is very high for a home (or care facility) to become a practical route. Apollo’s target price is under $50,000, says Cardenas. But there is no Apptronik yet.
“We are currently in the window where economics makes sense,” says Cardenas. “And we know how to get to a more affordable system.”
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