ARK Invest joins $403M raise for AI robotics firm Apptronik
18 Março 2025 - 11:13AM
Cointelegraph


Cryptocurrency-friendly investment firm ARK Invest has joined a
massive Series A funding round for Apptronik, a Texas-based firm
building humanoid robots.
Apptronik, on March 18, announced the successful close of an oversubscribed
$403M Series A funding round, adding another $53 million to the
$350 million round disclosed in February.
After investing in Apptronik’s Series A round, ARK has enabled
investors to access the company through its ARK Venture Fund
(ARKVX), which focuses on “disruptive innovation.”
Source: ARK
Funds
“After investing in their Series A round, the ARK Venture Fund
is proud to offer investors access to Apptronik! Download SoFi and
gain access today,” ARK wrote in an X post on
Tuesday.
Mercedes-Benz, Japan Post and Google among investors
Led by California-based B Capital and Texas-based Capital
Factory, the original $350 million Series A raise also featured
participation from tech mogul Google.
The latest raise included new investors such as the German
automotive giant Mercedes-Benz, early-stage tech investor Japan
Post Capital and RyderVentures, a corporate venture capital arm of
Ryder System, as well as a syndicate led by Korea Investment
Partners.
Apptronik’s oversubscribed raise reflects strong market demand
and investor confidence in the transformative power of embodied
artificial intelligence, or integration of AI into physical
systems.
Apptronik’s vision: Man plus machine
Founded in 2016, Apptronik is a robotics company that spun out
of the University of Texas at Austin’s Human-Centered Robotics Lab
with the goal of bringing forth the next generation of robots.
The company says it has developed 15 robotic systems, including
the humanoid robot NASA Valkyrie, before unveiling Apollo — an
AI-powered humanoid designed for industrial work.
Apptronik’s humanoid robot at trailer unloading. Source:
Apptronik
“We believe that it is not Man versus Machine, but Man plus
Machine that will take humanity into the next stage of evolution,”
Apptronik’s website reads.
According to
TechCrunch, Apptronik’s humanoid work dates back to 2013, when the
Human Centered Robotics Lab at the University of Austin competed in
the NASA-DARPA Robotics Challenge, focusing on a humanoid robot
called Valkyrie.
Google’s AI division, DeepMind, has
also partnered with Apptronik to deliver embodied AI for
its bipedal robots.
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ARK Invest’s investment in Apptronik further strengthens the
company’s commitment to innovation and technology, as the company’s
name acronym itself refers to “Active Research Knowledge.”
Apart from Apptronik, ARK has supported a wide number of AI
platforms, including Anthropic, OpenAI, Groq and many others.
In October 2024, ARK reportedly agreed to
invest at least $250 million in OpenAI’s funding round, with the AI
firm becoming its third-largest holding in the Ark Venture Fund,
accounting for 5% of its total assets.
Seven largest companies in the Ark Venture Fund. Source:
ARK
As of Feb. 28, Elon Musk’s space technology firm, SpaceX,
accounts for the largest share of the fund with a weight of roughly
16%, according to the official
website.
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ARK Invest joins $403M raise for AI robotics firm
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