Apptronik

Apptronik is a robotics company in Austin, Texas, that develops general-purpose humanoid robots. It was founded in 2016 out of the Human Centered Robotics Lab at the University of Texas at Austin.^[1] CNBC lists its founders as Jeff Cardenas, Nick Paine and Luis Sentis, and its headquarters as Austin, Texas.^[2]

From a university lab to a company

A humanoid robot is a machine designed around the human body, so that it can work in spaces already built for people — doorways, stairs, shelves and tools — instead of in a workcell rebuilt for a machine. That ambition is why so much of the early work in the field happened in university labs, and Apptronik is one of the companies that grew out of one.^[1]

Its product line did not begin with a single prototype. Apptronik says its Apollo robot came out of the design and development of more than 10 general-purpose robots, including extensive work on NASA's Valkyrie.^[1] In other words, the machine the company now sells is the end of a long series of designs rather than a first attempt.

Apollo

Apollo is the robot the company is built around. Apptronik's site says Apollo is offered with both bipedal and wheeled mobility options, and that its RaaS model provides return on investment from the start.^[3] The two mobility options answer different site conditions: legs let a machine climb stairs and step over thresholds, while a wheeled base is simpler and more stable on flat floors. Offering both means fitting the robot to the building rather than the building to the robot. The RaaS model sells the robot as an ongoing service rather than a one-off purchase, which the company says pays back from the start.^[3]

On 15 March 2024 Apptronik announced a commercial agreement with Mercedes-Benz, its first publicly announced commercial deployment of Apollo.^[1]

Funding and partners

In February 2025 the company announced a US$350 million Series A round co-led by B Capital and Capital Factory, with Google participating.^[2] A Series A is normally a startup's first large round of venture funding after early seed money, and the size of this one is what put the company on industry lists. CNBC reported that the round was oversubscribed and that additional investment raised the Series A total to US$415 million.^[2]

CNBC also reported that Apptronik had secured partnerships with NVIDIA and NASA and commercial deals with Mercedes-Benz and GXO Logistics.^[2] Alongside that, Google DeepMind joined forces with Apptronik to build the next generation of humanoid robots with Gemini 2.0.^[2] The mix is unusual in one respect: the company's named partners span chip design, spaceflight and logistics, three very different kinds of customer for the same machine.

Recognition

Apptronik's news page lists an IEEE Robotics & Automation Product Innovation Award in 2025 and inclusion in the 2026 CNBC Disruptor 50.^[3][4]

Where it sits

Put together, the record describes a shift from research hardware to paid work: a team that came out of a university lab^[1], a robot refined through more than 10 earlier general-purpose designs^[1], a first publicly announced commercial deployment in 2024^[1], and then a large funding round with named partners in chips, space and logistics.^[2] For readers following humanoid robots, Apptronik matters less as a single product than as a marker of a change in the conversation — from demonstration videos to named commercial agreements, first in car manufacturing and then in logistics.^[1][2]