Former Tesla Optimus scientist Rémi Cadene has unveiled UMA, a Paris-based humanoid robotics startup that has emerged from stealth with approximately $40M in seed funding from Greycroft, Factorial and other investors.

The company also introduced Northstar, its first humanoid robot prototype. Built around a lightweight platform, UMA says it is developing robots for practical warehouse and manufacturing applications rather than highly choreographed demonstrations.

The founding team includes alumni from Tesla, DeepMind and Hugging Face, with AI researcher Yann LeCun serving as an advisor. The launch adds another well-funded European player to a rapidly growing humanoid robotics market alongside companies including Neura Robotics, Sereact, Figure and 1X.

According to Tech.eu, robotics companies raised approximately €1.3B during June, representing roughly 15.6% of all European startup investment for the month. While overall funding declined slightly, deal activity continued to increase as investors backed a larger number of earlier-stage companies.

German AI robotics company Sereact closed a $110M Series B led by Headline.

The company will use the funding to expand deployment of Cortex 2, its foundation model designed to operate robotic systems ranging from single-arm cells to humanoids, while accelerating international growth with a new Boston office. Customers include BMW and Daimler Truck.

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ETH Zurich spin-off Mimic announced €13.8M in new funding, bringing its total capital raised to approximately €17M.

The company develops AI foundation models paired with dexterous robotic hands, with the goal of enabling human-level manipulation across industrial robotics.

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Hiring across engineering, commercial and operations as the company expands both its Stuttgart headquarters and new Boston office.

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Expanding its engineering team in Zurich to accelerate development of its dexterous manipulation foundation models.

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Chinese robotics company AGIBOT showcased its latest A3 humanoid in London while announcing broader European expansion, including Robot-as-a-Service offerings targeting the UK, Italy, Germany and Spain.

Following this week's unveiling, UMA plans to deliver a wheeled proof-of-concept before progressing to a fully legged humanoid platform, with initial pilot deployments targeted for 2026.

Global robotics funding reached approximately $27.6B in 2025, according to Crunchbase, reflecting continued investor confidence in automation driven by labour shortages, ageing populations and advances in AI.

Barcelona-based Kembara announced a €750M first close toward its planned €1B deep-tech fund, targeting growth-stage investments across robotics, AI and defence technology.

Industry analysts continue to note that European Series B and C funding rounds are typically smaller than comparable US rounds, contributing to many robotics companies seeking international investors as they scale.

Thank you to everyone who joined our latest HackLab Robotics Hackathon, held on June 20–21, 2026 at CIC Berlin.

We received 600 applications and welcomed the top 130 robotics, ML, AI and software engineers for a 36-hour hackathon pushing the boundaries of PhysicalAI.

The innovation, collaboration and technical talent on display made it an incredible weekend.

We're already planning our next robotics hackathon, which will be bigger and better, with more participants, more industry partners, more prizes and even greater opportunities for builders.

Stay tuned for the official announcement is coming soon.

Whether you were able to join us at the Hackathon or not, your AI journey doesn't have to stop here.

Thanks to our sponsor Migrapreneur, with support from Google.org and the Centre for Public Impact, we're excited to offer you FREE access to a self-paced AI Training Program.

The program includes courses for every skill level, from complete beginners to advanced users, covering topics such as AI prompting, data analytics, and practical AI applications.

Earn professional certificates upon successful completion and add them to your CV, LinkedIn profile, or professional portfolio.

Register here

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