Persona AI

01 · About

Founded 2024 · Houston, USA

Persona AI is a Houston, Texas-based robotics startup founded by Nick Radford, formerly the lead of NASA's Valkyrie humanoid robot program at Johnson Space Center. The company focuses on designing industrial humanoid robots for demanding physical environments including welding, construction, fabrication, energy, and shipyards. In March 2026, Persona AI announced a partnership with HD Hyundai Robotics and HD KSOE (Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering) targeting shipyard applications.

Founders

Nick Radford
CEO

02 · What they do

Domain of activity

3 areas

What they do3Areas

Humanoid robots
Industrial robots
Embodied AI

03 · Geography

Global presence

HQ Houston · 1 regions

USA

04 · Metrics

Scale & funding

founded 2024 · Pre-seed

2024founded

$27Mtotal funding

Pre-seedlatest round

earlydevelopment stage

activestatus

$27M

total funding

Pre-seedOversubscribed pre-seed round.

$27M

07 · Classification

Profile & metadata

3 classification · 1 external links

Classification

Statusactive
Development stageearly
Organization typeStartup+ Robotics company

External links

personaai.com

08 · Related content

Articles

1 articles

News12 May 2026

Persona AI and Under Armour Explore Performance Materials for Humanoid Robots

Persona AI, a maker of industrial humanoid robots, announced an early-stage R&D collaboration with Under Armour on May 11, 2026. The goal is to study how advanced performance textiles can improve the durability and resilience of humanoids operating in welding shops and other extreme industrial environments.