UK startup Humanoid has raised $152 million in a Series A round at a $1.35 billion valuation, becoming Europe's first pure-play humanoid unicorn. The round was led by Prime Movers Lab and included Bosch and Schaeffler — industrial partners that are also testing the company's robots on their own lines.
Key takeaways
- Series A round: $152 million, post-money valuation of $1.35 billion.
- Total funding to date: $270 million, led by Prime Movers Lab with Bosch and Schaeffler participating.
- Flagship product: HMND 01 Alpha — a wheeled humanoid built on the NVIDIA Jetson Thor module.
- Logistics trials: 90% success rate at Siemens, throughput targets exceeded at Ford's Cologne plant.
- Backlog: around 30,000 non-binding reservations, beta planned for Q4 2026, Schaeffler deployment deal running through 2032.
A wheeled humanoid instead of a bipedal one
Humanoid was founded in May 2024 and is led by Artem Sokolov. From the start the company took a different route from most rivals. Rather than racing toward full bipedal locomotion, it bet on a work-ready design — the HMND 01 Alpha. It is a humanoid torso mounted on a wheeled base, built for warehouse and manufacturing tasks.
The company calls this approach "utility-first": usefulness on the floor first, walking on two legs later. A bipedal variant is in development, but the wheeled platform reaches customers first. The robot's compute runs on an NVIDIA Jetson Thor module, and its software is integrated with the SAP EWM warehouse system.
That is a pragmatic contrast to U.S. rivals. Figure, Apptronik and 1X are building fully bipedal robots, aiming for versatility at the cost of faster deployment. Humanoid flips the order — narrow, repeatable logistics tasks first, where wheels are simpler and more reliable than legs.
| Player | Locomotion | Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| Humanoid (HMND 01) | wheeled | utility-first — deploy in logistics first |
| Figure, Apptronik, 1X | bipedal | versatility — full locomotion before scale |
Investors who are also customers
The most interesting part of the round is the investor lineup. Alongside lead investor Prime Movers Lab came Fubon Financial Holding Venture Capital, Aglaé Ventures, and two German industrial giants — Bosch and Schaeffler. The latter are not just backers. They are potential robot buyers, closing the loop between funding and real deployment.
The company cites concrete results from partner trials. In logistics tests at Siemens, the HMND 01 hit a 90% success rate, and at Ford's Cologne plant it exceeded its throughput targets. With Schaeffler, Humanoid has a deployment agreement running through 2032 — an unusually long horizon for such a young company.
It puts its order backlog at roughly 30,000 non-binding reservations — an impressive figure, though non-binding reservations are not yet sales.
A European exception on a US- and China-dominated map
The humanoid market today is split mainly between American and Chinese firms. Europe has few pure players in the segment — Germany's NEURA Robotics is developing its 4NE-1 platform, but beyond that the continent lags. Being the first European pure-play?pure-play: A company focused on a single segment — here: building humanoids, with no side business lines. humanoid unicorn is therefore symbolic: it shows capital for physical robotics is starting to flow on this side of the Atlantic too.
The regulatory context matters as well. The U.S. FCC is working on restrictions to imports of Chinese humanoids, which could open space for non-Chinese makers. A European player with a German industrial base fits that trend well.
Why it matters
Humanoid's round shows investors are starting to reward pragmatism over flashy walking demos. A wheeled torso that actually moves boxes at a 90% success rate is easier to sell today than a bipedal robot still learning to keep its balance. That signals the whole sector is maturing.
Having Bosch and Schaeffler as both investors and testers removes one of robotics' biggest risks — the absence of a real buyer. When the backer is also the first customer, the path from prototype to deployment gets shorter. For Europe, which usually chases the U.S. and China in AI and robotics, a homegrown humanoid unicorn is strategically meaningful, even if the $1.35 billion valuation runs ahead of the company's actual revenue today.
What's next?
- A beta rollout of the HMND 01 is planned for Q4 2026 — its first test of scale beyond controlled trials.
- The Schaeffler deployment deal runs through 2032 and will be the main gauge of real demand.
- The bipedal variant remains in development — its launch will show whether the company keeps its utility-first strategy.
