By Krystal Hu<\/p>\n
Feb 11 (Reuters) – Humanoid robotics startup Apptronik raised $520 million in a funding round backed by investors including Google and Mercedes-Benz, the company said \u200con Wednesday, as it seeks to commercialize its robots for industrial use.<\/p>\n
The round \u200cvalued the Austin, Texas-based company at about $5 billion, a source familiar with the matter said. B Capital and \u200bthe Qatar Investment Authority also participated in the so-called Series A extension, roughly a year after Apptronik raised $415 million.<\/p>\n
Apptronik plans to use the fresh capital to develop new versions of its Apollo robot, ramp up production and expand its workforce beyond its current headcount of more \u200cthan 300 employees. It is also \u2060planning a robot training and data collection facility in Austin and an office in California.<\/p>\n
Chief Executive Jeff Cardenas said the company expects more \u2060deployments of humanoid robots in factories and warehouses this year and next.<\/p>\n
The funding comes as companies race to develop human-like robots for industrial work; Tesla<\/a> and Nvidia-backed Figure AI are trying \u200bto build \u200band deploy humanoids at scale. Figure AI was \u200brecently valued at $39 billion.<\/p>\n Apptronik is initially \u200ctargeting manufacturing and logistics customers and has commercial agreements with Mercedes-Benz and GXO Logistics. Over the longer term, it is seeking to expand into assisted care and home-use applications.<\/p>\n Its humanoid Apollo has both legs and wheels to navigate industrial environments. Apptronik says human-scale robots can access existing workstations and shelving, potentially replacing some task-specific industrial machines over time.<\/p>\n