Destro AI
Brooklyn startup building robot-agnostic software that assigns warehouse work across robots from different makers and gives mobile manipulators skills learned from human demonstration.
- Skild AI and Figure top the largest humanoid and embodied-AI funding rounds of 2025-2026, as money moves from robot bodies to robot brains
Skild AI's $1.4 billion Series C, led by SoftBank, and Figure AI's $1 billion Series C, led by Parkway Venture Capital, are the two largest humanoid and embodied-AI rounds in ROBOTNESS's verified records since January 2025, and together make up 41% of the $5.86 billion disclosed across 22 rounds. Humanoid makers took 70% of disclosed money in 2025, but developers of robot foundation models have taken 71% in 2026 so far, and NVIDIA joined seven rounds without leading one.
Mentioned - Gradient leads US$7.6 million round for Feather, which sells a US$29,990 two-armed robot and lets buyers pick the brain
Feather Robotics, a US startup selling an open-hardware wheeled robot with two arms for US$29,990, raised US$7.6 million in a round led by Gradient, the lead investor said on 30 September 2026. Gradient said Feather has already passed US$1 million in revenue, with robots at work in manufacturing and food service.
Mentioned - Andreessen Horowitz leads $7.5 million pre-seed for Aleph Surgical, which wants robots to operate without a surgeon at the controls
Aleph Surgical, which is building autonomous surgical robots on embodied foundation models, said on 30 September 2026 that it raised $7.5 million in a pre-seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz. The company says its first system is already learning surgical tasks from demonstrations, but it has published no success rates.
Mentioned - Tokyo's Qibitech raises about ¥600 million in Series B to sell one control layer for robots from any maker
Qibitech, the Tokyo developer of HATS vendor-agnostic robot control software, said on 30 September 2026 it raised about ¥600 million in a Series B through a third-party share allotment to funds managed by JIC Venture Growth Investments and Sumitomo Corporation Venture Partners. The money goes to HATS development, sales and hiring.
Mentioned - Destro AI raises $8 million seed to make warehouse robots from different makers work as one fleet
Destro AI, a Brooklyn startup founded in 2026, said on 29 September 2026 it raised an $8 million seed round co-led by Base10 Partners and Bonfire Ventures. Its software assigns tasks across mixed robot fleets and is already live with Yusen Logistics (Americas).
Subject - D-Robotics raises US$400 million to sell its Sunrise chips as the compute layer for China's robot makers
D-Robotics, the robot-chip business Horizon Robotics stopped consolidating in March, said on 17 September 2026 it had closed a US$400 million Series C without naming a single investor or a valuation. The company says it has shipped more than 8 million Sunrise chips and that its newest S600 part won more than 20 robot customers within six months, including UBTECH, Fourier and Booster Robotics.
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