The 25 most promising robotics startups in 2026, according to investors

Nominated by: Amy Yin, defy.vc (an investor)

Total funding: $6.5 million, according to the company

What it does: San Francisco-based Avatar Robotics uses remotely operated robots to benignant and battalion products successful warehouses. The institution uses information from those shifts to train its robots to go much autonomous.

Why it's promising: Avatar's robots make training information while doing paid activity for customers. Human operators successful Mexico and the Philippines power them pinch virtual reality headsets and handheld controllers, and Avatar uses those sessions to amended its robotics models.

CEO Colin Webb antecedently told Business Insider that this attack produces much useful information than paying group to cod it separately. His semipermanent extremity is to build an "unlimited workforce for business labor" and person millions of robots deployed crossed factories, farms, and mines.

Nominated by: Ben Hemani, Bison Ventures (an investor)

Total funding: $160 million, according to the company

What it does: Santa Clara, California-based Cobot builds Proxie, a mobile robot that useful alongside group successful hospitals, factories, and logistics centers to move carts and materials. Its latest type has 2 arms for carrying and restocking items.

Why it's promising: Cobot is led by Brad Porter, who antecedently ran Amazon Robotics and served arsenic CTO of Scale AI. Its first-generation robots logged astir 13,000 hours and moved much than 154,000 carts for customers, including Mayo Clinic and Maersk, Porter said.

Those deployments shaped a second-generation Proxie that is much compact, tin assistance much than 200 pounds, and is cheaper to build because it has less parts.

Hemani of Bison Ventures told Business Insider that Proxie's autonomy stands out. A worker can, for example, constitute a cart's destination connected an attached whiteboard, and Proxie tin publication it and present the cart location autonomously.

Nominated by: Mark Martin, Cybernetix Ventures (an investor)

Total funding: $47.5 million, according to the company

What it does: Boston-based Dash Bio automates laboratory testing for supplier development. Its robots and package grip activity that scientists do manually, specified arsenic preparing samples and moving tests, helping pharmaceutical companies present results faster.

Why it's promising: Dash Bio was cofounded by Dave Johnson, Moderna's erstwhile main information and AI officer. Dash tin complete testing successful days, astir 10 times arsenic accelerated arsenic manufacture norms, Johnson told Business Insider. The institution has a fewer twelve customers and publishes fixed pricing online, avoiding a lengthy income process.

Nominated by: Kahini Shah, Obvious Ventures (an investor)

Total funding: $295 million, according to the company

What it does: Bay Area-based Dexterity is building a general-purpose AI "brain" designed to power galore kinds of robots.

Why it's promising: Dexterity's flagship product, Mech, is an "industrial superhumanoid," CEO Samir Menon told Business Insider. It has ample arms and an extended scope for tasks specified arsenic loading trucks and stacking boxes onto pallets. Mech tin load astir 400 boxes into a trailer, compared pinch an manufacture mean of astir 300. The robots are powered by Foresight, Dexterity's AI model, which decides successful existent clip really champion to put packages wrong a truck.

FedEx precocious expanded its deployment of Dexterity's robots astatine its Maryland hub aft respective years of testing. Menon said Dexterity's systems are deployed astatine astir 10 sites, pinch a akin number of pilots underway.

Nominated by: Alexandra Sukin, Bessemer Venture Partners (not an investor)

Total funding: $405 million, according to the company

What it does: Founded successful 2023, FieldAI is building a azygous AI strategy that tin power different types of robots and thief them run safely and autonomously successful unpredictable environments.

Why it's promising: FieldAI has much than 30 customers, including building firms, information halfway operators, and defense companies. CEO Ali Agha told Business Insider successful June that the institution has secured much than $100 cardinal successful gross and customer contracts.

The company's package evaluates consequence and makes decisions successful unfamiliar situations without extended task-specific training. The institution has recruited from Google DeepMind, Waymo, Tesla, Nvidia, Boston Dynamics, and Amazon.

Nominated by: Alexandra Sukin, Bessemer Venture Partners (an investor)

Total funding: $60 million, according to the company

What it does: San Francisco-based Foxglove builds package for robotics companies, helping teams analyse information from its robots, place failures, and amended performance.

Why it's promising: CEO Adrian Macneil sewage the thought for Foxglove while starring infrastructure engineering astatine Cruise, wherever he said little than 1% of the information collected crossed millions of miles was useful for improving its self-driving system.

"I realized that each robotics institution would yet request the aforesaid foundational information infrastructure, and they shouldn't person to walk years building it themselves," Macneil told Business Insider.

Foxglove now has much than 250 customers, including autonomous driving startup Wayve and defense tech companies Anduril, Shield AI, and Saronic.

Nominated by: Siddharth Ramakrishnan, Scale Venture Partners (an investor)

Total funding: $540 million, according to the company

What it does: Bay Area-based Generalist builds AI package that tin power different robots crossed factories, laboratories, and homes.

Why it's promising: Former Google DeepMind and Boston Dynamics roboticists founded Generalist. To thatch its AI astir the beingness world, the startup built low-cost "grippers" that mimic robot hands and distributed thousands of them astir the world, collecting much than 500,000 hours of training data.

CEO Pete Florence told Business Insider that the attack is working. He said Generalist's first model, GEN-0, improved arsenic the institution added much information and computing power. Florence compared its latest model, GEN-1, to GPT-3 because immoderate uses, including folding laundry and packing iPhones into boxes, are now becoming commercially viable.

Nominated by: Mark Martin, Cybernetix Ventures (not an investor)

Total funding: $347 million, according to the company

What it does: Pittsburgh-based Gecko Robotics builds wall-climbing robots and AI package to inspect powerfulness plants, pipelines, and naval ships.

Why it's promising: CEO Jake Loosararian started Gecko aft visiting a powerfulness works successful assemblage and learning really vulnerable manual inspections could beryllium for humans.

"If you want to digitize the beingness world, you person to spell astir the difficult effort of collecting information that's ne'er been digitized before, and astatine a costs that isn't prohibitive," Loosararian told Business Insider. "That's wherever robots travel in."

The institution has since expanded to package that helps customers scheme repairs and maintenance. In March, Gecko won a five-year statement pinch the US Navy and General Services Administration worthy up to $71 million, starting pinch inspections of 18 Pacific Fleet ships.

Nominated by: Ryan Gembala, Pathbreaker Ventures (an investor)

Total funding: $86 million, according to the company

What it does: Carson, California-based GrayMatter Robotics builds AI-powered robots for aboveground finishing, a process that includes sanding, grinding, blasting, and coating manufactured parts. Its robots activity connected products ranging from guitars to combatant jets.

Why it's promising: Traditional business robots are typically programmed for a circumstantial portion and struggle erstwhile its shape, material, aliases information changes. GrayMatter's robots scan each part, accommodate connected their own, and study from each deployment. The institution says its systems person generated much than 7 petabytes of manufacturing data, which it uses to amended its AI.

GrayMatter's customers see the US Air Force, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin. This month, the institution announced a seven-year, $900 cardinal statement pinch 2 different robotics companies to automate shipbuilding activity for the US Navy.

Nominated by: Ryan Gembala, Pathbreaker Ventures (not an investor)

Total funding: $169 million, according to the company

What it does: Los Angeles-based Machina Labs builds robotic factories to make analyzable metallic parts. Its RoboCraftsman strategy uses 2 robotic arms, sensors, and AI to shape, inspect, trim, and drill parts straight from integer designs.

Why it's promising: Ed Mehr, who antecedently worked astatine SpaceX, leads Machina. The institution builds what Mehr calls a "software-defined factory" that tin move betwixt making different products without costly retooling.

"You tin programme that installation to make rocket components successful the morning, and past successful the day you make craft components, and past astatine nighttime erstwhile nobody's location you make automotive components," Mehr told Business Insider past month.

Machina is building a 200,000-square-foot mill pinch room for 50 RoboCraftsman cells. Last month, the institution won a statement pinch Lockheed Martin to suffice its manufacturing process for parts utilized successful JASSM, a long-range cruise rocket utilized by the US military.

Nominated by: Charly Mwangi, Eclipse (an investor and cofounder)

Total funding: Undisclosed

What it does: Bay Area-based Matter is building autonomous factories that combine drones and robots.

Why it's promising: Matter was cofounded by a squad pinch acquisition astatine Tesla, Rivian, and Travis Kalanick's Atoms, and is being incubated by Eclipse partner Charly Mwangi, who antecedently held executive roles astatine each 3 companies. The startup has opened a 54,000-square-foot mill successful Sunnyvale, California, and begun producing robotic components for customers.

"The extremity is to rebuild American manufacturing arsenic a package problem, not a labour problem," CEO Adi Prasad told Business Insider past month.

Matter says each accumulation tally generates information that improves MatterOS, its level for automating and coordinating mill operations.

Nominated by: Charly Mwangi, Eclipse (not an investor)

Total funding: $68 million, according to the company

What it does: New York City-based Mecka AI collects training information for robotics companies by capturing really humans interact pinch the beingness world. People grounds mundane tasks utilizing phones and wearable devices, and Mecka turns the recordings into datasets for training robots.

Why it's promising: Mecka intends to make physical-world information arsenic inexpensive and easy to cod arsenic the matter and images utilized to train accepted AI models.

Instead of relying connected group to power robots, Mecka puts sensors connected humans to seizure the visual, movement, and unit information that cameras miss. It useful pinch starring AI labs and is building civilization hardware, including gloves pinch built-in sensors, for information collection. Mecka precocious crossed $100 cardinal successful annualized revenue, CEO Josh Gao told Business Insider.

Nominated by: Ben Hemani, Bison Ventures (not an investor)

Total funding: $20 million, according to the company

What it does: Zurich-based Mimic Robotics builds dexterous robotic hands and AI for analyzable business tasks. Workers usage wearable gloves to show tasks, and Mimic's package trains robots to replicate those movements.

Why it's promising: Mimic spun retired of an ETH Zurich investigation laboratory 2 years ago. The startup is moving pinch manufacturers, including Audi, which is testing its exertion successful factories. The institution says that its five-fingered robotic hand, which tin grip much than 55 pounds, is not acold disconnected quality capabilities successful speed, dexterity, and strength. The startup is 1 of respective trying to lick what Elon Musk has called the "hands problem" — recreating the dexterity of the quality manus pinch sensors, motors, and software.

Nominated by: Ally Warson, UP.Partners (an investor)

Total funding: Undisclosed

What it does: Bay Area-based Noble Machines builds general-purpose humanoid robots for hazardous and physically demanding business work. Its Moby robot is designed for jobs successful manufacturing, construction, and power plants.

Why it's promising: Engineers from Apple, SpaceX, and NASA founded Noble Machines successful 2024. In little than 2 years, the institution has built 3 generations of its humanoid robot and is finishing a fourth.

CEO Wei Ding told Business Insider that Noble has a woody to deploy its humanoids pinch a awesome world building company. The startup is besides processing AI that could yet fto customers thatch a robot a caller accomplishment arsenic quickly arsenic it takes to train a caller employee.

To trim geopolitical risk and compete globally, Noble maintains 2 proviso chains for its humanoids: 1 successful Asia and different crossed the US and allied countries.

Nominated by: Lyna Kim, Lowercarbon Capital (invested personally)

Total funding: Undisclosed

What it does: San Francisco-based Palatial automates the creation of virtual environments wherever robots tin believe tasks earlier attempting them successful the existent world.

Why it's promising: Steven Ren sewage the thought while moving connected a integer copy of Tesla's Nevada Gigafactory, a virtual exemplary utilized to scheme and coordinate construction. Building it was slow and manual, and Ren saw an opportunity to automate the process. He soon concluded that robotics was an moreover bigger marketplace than building — a building needs 1 integer twin, while training a robot requires millions of simulated objects and environments.

Since launching its automated simulation generator earlier this year, Ren told Business Insider that much than 200 AI companies person expressed interest, pinch galore — including Nvidia — becoming customers.

Nominated by: Stephanie Zhan, Sequoia (an investor); James Detweiler, Felicis (an investor)

Total funding: $2.2 billion, according to PitchBook

What it does: Skild AI builds an AI exemplary designed to power robotic arms, humanoids, quadrupeds, and mobile robots. The exemplary is designed to thief different machines study caller jobs without being programmed for each task.

Why it's promising: Former Carnegie Mellon professors Deepak Pathak and Abhinav Gupta founded Skild. The institution generated $30 cardinal successful gross successful 2025. Its exertion is utilized successful security, construction, warehouses, and manufacturing. Skild is moving pinch Nvidia and Foxconn to usage its AI to power robotic arms connected accumulation lines for Nvidia's Blackwell chips, automating an assembly task that is presently performed by people.

Nominated by: Amanda Huang, Bain Capital Ventures (an investor)

Total funding: $200 million, according to the company

What it does: Bay Area-based Sunday Robotics builds Memo, a wheeled robot that performs family chores.

Why it's promising: Last month, Sunday said Memo, powered by its caller AI model, folded laundry successful unfamiliar homes pinch a occurrence complaint supra 99%.

"I deliberation 2026 will beryllium erstwhile the timeline for autonomous location robots shrinks successful a very drastic measurement because of this breakthrough," CEO and cofounder Tony Zhao, a erstwhile Stanford robotics researcher, told Business Insider past month.

Sunday plans to spot Memo successful homes done a beta programme this fall. It is besides training Memo to vacuum, shape toys, and make coffee.

Nominated by: Lyna Kim, Lowercarbon Capital (an investor)

Total funding: $8 million, according to the company

What it does: Bay Area-based Synphony collects real-world information and builds package that adapts robotics instauration models to circumstantial business jobs. Its first challenge: school robots to prime strawberries.

Why it's promising: Synphony participated successful Y Combinator earlier this twelvemonth and vanished the programme pinch much than $1 cardinal successful revenue, CEO and cofounder Sean Wu told Business Insider. For its first pilot, the startup put data-collection gloves connected strawberry pickers astatine a workplace tally by 1 of the largest US producers, past utilized the information to train a robot to prime the fruit.

Synphony plans to grow into different business tasks, including nutrient processing and storage packing.

Nominated by: Stephanie Zhan, Sequoia (not an investor)

Total funding: $265 million, according to PitchBook

What it does: Hangzhou, China-based Unitree builds humanoid and four-legged robots for research, consumer, and business uses.

Why it's promising: Founded successful 2016 by CEO Wang Xingxing, Unitree has shown that humanoid robots tin beryllium built comparatively cheaply and astatine scale. It shipped much than 5,500 humanoids successful 2025, much than a 4th of the world market, according to the company. Unitree is preparing to spell nationalist successful Shanghai astatine a valuation of astir $9 billion, perchance making it China's first publically listed humanoid robotics company. It plans to put successful processing caller hardware and package and expanding manufacturing.

Nominated by: Siddharth Ramakrishnan, Scale Venture Partners (not an investor)

Total funding: $7.5 million, according to PitchBook

What it does: Waterloo, Canada-based Upside Robotics builds small, solar-powered robots that use fertilizer straight to plants. They usage sensors and package to find really overmuch fertilizer each works needs alternatively than applying the aforesaid magnitude everywhere.

Why it's promising: The institution says its robots tin trim fertilizer usage by up to 70% by delivering nutrients straight to works roots. Built-in cameras and sensors besides show harvest health.

Nominated by: Jim Adler, Toyota Ventures (an investor)

Total funding: $300 million, according to the company

What it does: Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Walden Robotics, which spun retired of the Toyota Research Institute, builds general-purpose robots and the AI models that power them.

Why it's promising: Walden deploys robots successful factories and warehouses to execute repetitive, physically demanding tasks specified arsenic loading car parts, cleaning machinery, and preparing components for assembly. CEO Russ Tedrake told Business Insider that the robots move connected wheels alternatively than legs for greater information and stability, and to time off room for a larger artillery and much computing power.

"It's a pragmatic type of a humanoid," said Tedrake, who is simply a longtime MIT roboticist whose erstwhile students clasp activity roles astatine Boston Dynamics, Google DeepMind, Generalist, and Sunday Robotics.

Adler said he's bullish connected Walden because of Tedrake's acquisition and the company's early traction. Within months of launching successful January, its robots were handling eight-hour shifts astatine customer sites, he said

Nominated by: Jim Adler, Toyota Ventures (not an investor)

Total funding: $11 million, according to the company

What it does: South San Francisco-based Westmag, short for Western Magnetics Company, makes motors and actuators for drones and robots.

Why it's promising: China dominates accumulation of galore of these components, but Westmag, pinch a seed information led by Andreessen Horowitz, is processing a US-made replacement to trim manufacturers' reliance connected overseas suppliers. The institution is now ramping up accumulation astatine its first mill southbound of San Francisco.

"The Western drone and robot companies we service request reliable, cost-effective, and resilient constituent proviso successful bid to standard and triumph globally," Jordan Sanders, cofounder and COO of Westmag, told Business Insider.

Nominated by: Amanda Huang, Bain Capital Ventures (not an investor); James Detweiler, Felicis (not an investor); Kahini Shah, Obvious Ventures (invested personally)

Total funding: $78.33 million, according to PitchBook

What it does: XDOF collects and organizes real-world information utilized for training robots. It gathers information from group who power robots and execute mundane tasks.

Why it's promising: XDOF is tackling 1 of robotics' biggest bottlenecks: getting capable high-quality, real-world training data. Cofounder and CEO Philipp Wu founded the institution aft encountering a shortage of training information while researching robot learning astatine the University of California, Berkeley. XDOF now useful pinch astir 20 customers, including starring AI labs. Its investors see Thrive Capital, Spark Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz.

Huang from Bain Capital Ventures said that XDOF stands retired because it understands that the hardware utilized to cod training information — from cameras to rig creation to search algorithms — straight affects information quality. "Garbage in, garbage out," she said.

Nominated by: Ally Warson, UP.Partners (not an investor)

Total funding: $2 billion, according to PitchBook

What it does: Bay Area-based Zipline builds and operates autonomous transportation drones that transportation aesculapian supplies, food, and unit goods.

Why it's promising: Zipline, which launched successful Rwanda successful 2016 to present blood, is now expanding successful the US. The institution said that the number of businesses offering transportation done its work grew 13 times successful the first half of this year. Now, Zipline has hired executives from Tesla, Waymo, and Uber to standard its business.

Nominated by: Amy Yin, defy.vc (not an investor)

Total funding: $11.05 million, according to the company

What it does: Bay Area-based 1Robot builds package that coordinates people, robots, autonomous vehicles, and AI agents to complete real-world tasks. For example, its package could usage camera footage to observe a collision, person an AI supplier measure the scene, and dispatch an autonomous conveyance pinch the correct robots and personnel.

Why it's promising: 1Robot's customers see Samsung, Nestlé, and authorities agencies, cofounder and co-CEO Jesse Tran told Business Insider. Revenue reached $5.5 cardinal successful the first half of 2026, up from $2.5 cardinal successful each of 2025, he said.

Yin from defy.vc said 1Robot besides stands retired for its Vietnam- and Taiwan-based proviso chain, which gives US customers an replacement to Chinese robotics hardware.

"Our early wars are going to beryllium fought pinch humanoid robotics," she said.