Apptronik has moved into a new phase of the humanoid robotics race with a $350 million Series A round. The Austin-based company, a University of Texas spinout, is not entering the category as a newcomer: its humanoid work stretches back to 2013, before the company itself was founded.
The financing arrives as humanoid robots are attracting serious attention from investors, AI companies, automakers, logistics operators, and robotics labs. For Apptronik, the message is clear: prove useful work with early customers first, then push toward commercialization and scale.
A large round for a company with a long runway
The $350 million Series A was co-led by B Capital and Capital Factory. Google also participated, and its DeepMind division is working with Apptronik on embodied AI for bipedal robots.
Before this round, Apptronik had raised a combined $28 million. CEO Jeff Cardenas told TechCrunch that the company’s previous goal was to generate more revenue than money raised, and that the 8-year-old startup achieved that goal. That revenue came through pilot deals, including with Mercedes and GXO Logistics, as well as outright robot sales.
That earlier discipline is now giving way to a different priority. The new financing is meant to support a larger push into scaling and production, even if the company’s old funding-versus-revenue benchmark has to pause for a while.
“What 2025 is about for Apptronik and the humanoid industry is really demonstrating useful work in these applications with these initial early adopters and customers,” CEO Jeff Cardenas tells TechCrunch. “And then true commercialization and scaling happening in 2026 and beyond. That’s what this raise is designed to do.”
The timeline matters because Apptronik is still in the pilot stage with its partnerships. The company is not presenting humanoids as a finished mass-market product. Instead, it is trying to show that Apollo, its current humanoid robot, can perform valuable work in real operating environments before scaling more broadly.
Why experience is part of Apptronik’s pitch
Apptronik’s humanoid roots go back to 2013, when members of the University of Austin at Texas’s Human Centered Robotics Lab competed in the NASA-DARPA Robotics Challenge. That effort centered on a humanoid robot called Valkyrie.
Since then, NASA has maintained a partnership with Apptronik as the company prepared its own generation of humanoids, including Apollo. Cardenas points to that decade-plus history as a key difference between Apptronik and competitors such as Figure, 1X, and Tesla.
That does not mean Apptronik is the only experienced company in the field. Boston Dynamics and Agility Robotics also have long histories. But compared with much of the current wave of humanoid robotics companies, Apptronik can point to a deeper record of work in the category.
That background may help explain why Google DeepMind is working with the company on robot behavioral models. The partnership fits a broader industry pattern: robotics companies are seeking AI support, while AI groups are looking for ways to connect models to machines that can operate in the physical world.
AI partnerships are shaping the category
Apptronik’s relationship with Google DeepMind is not happening in isolation. Boston Dynamics announced a tie-up with the Robotics and AI Institute, following a separate deal between the Spot maker and Toyota Research Institute focused on improving how robots learn.
OpenAI has also made multiple moves in the space. The ChatGPT maker has invested in both 1X and Figure. Figure announced last August that it would further leverage OpenAI models to develop natural speech conversations for its 02 robot, though it later announced plans to move all AI development in-house.
Figure CEO Brett Adcock framed that decision as a need for vertical integration.
“We found that to solve embodied AI at scale in the real world, you have to vertically integrate robot AI,” Figure CEO Brett Adcock told TechCrunch last week. “We can’t outsource AI for the same reason we can’t outsource our hardware.”
Apptronik could eventually make a similar choice, but its current position is different. Building bespoke humanoid AI models in-house would require additional funding and resources. For now, Cardenas says the Google DeepMind partnership makes more sense.
“We believe that right now, Google is at the top of the game and building some of the best models in the world,” Cardenas says.
That puts Apptronik in a practical middle ground: it is developing the robot platform while leaning on a major AI partner for model work. The result could help determine how quickly Apollo becomes useful in the kinds of settings where pilots are already taking place.
Factories and warehouses come first
The first major market for humanoid robots is not the home. Apptronik, like many of its rivals, is focused on industrial settings, especially factories and warehouses.
There are clear reasons for that focus within the source material. Companies have the money and resources required to run pilots. Factory floors also offer manual tasks that are natural early targets, including tote moving.
Mercedes is one of Apptronik’s ongoing pilots, and automotive manufacturing has become a leading use case for humanoid robot testing. Boston Dynamics has been working with Hyundai, Figure has deployed robots with BMW, and Tesla’s Optimus is expected to work on Tesla’s own EVs.
Even so, Cardenas is cautious about the pace of the market. The category has a reputation for being quick to overpromise and underdeliver. Before meaningful scaling can happen, companies still need to address issues such as safety and reliability.
That caution also shows up in Apptronik’s hiring plans. The company’s headcount is just north of 170 people, and it plans a 50% increase over the next year. Scaling the team is part of scaling the product, but it does not erase the need to prove the robot in real work.
The home is a longer-term goal
Apptronik is also looking beyond factories and warehouses. The company sees possible future uses for Apollo in homes, where humanoids could help with groceries, cooking, folding laundry, and other tasks buyers might want to hand off to a machine.
Cardenas is especially interested in age tech. As the population ages and more older adults prefer to live independently, humanoids could eventually help support that goal.
“The holy grail for me is [age tech],” says Cardenas. “As humans,” he says he asks himself, “Where could we apply this technology that improves the human condition?”
But that path is not immediate. The systems remain too expensive for the home, and even care facilities are not yet a practical route. Apollo’s target price is below $50,000, but Apptronik is not there yet.
For now, the company’s best route is industrial work: pilots, production, reliability, safety, and lower costs over time. The $350 million round gives Apptronik more room to pursue that path, but the harder test is still ahead: turning humanoid robots from impressive demonstrations into machines that can do useful work at scale.
“We’re in the window where the economics now make sense,” says Cardenas. “And we know how to get to much more affordable systems.”