A humanoid has just taken a step towards consumer households afterrobotmaker 1x raised a cool $100mn.
The Norwegian startup will spend the funds on bringing an android named Neo to the market.
The bipedalis designed for everydaydomestic tasks, from laundry to tidying.
Brnich co-founded 1X in 2014.
He envisions the company producing commercial androidsthat benefit society and meet labour demand.
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The first droid tasked with this assignment was Eve, which was developed for enterpriseapplications.
The two-wheeler rolled into work for the first time last year.
Since joining the labour force, Eve has proven particularly adept at warehouse logistics and guarding.
Neo has broader ambitions.
Thegeneral-purpose bot isbuiltto fit into our everyday lives as an intelligent assistant.
To ease that transition, 1X gave Neo various human attributes.
It resembles us in form, height (165 cm), and range of motion.
Its also got dexterous hands, which can lift 75kgs in a deadlift or a squat.
But what makes Neo truly unique among humanoids is that its not an industrial machine.
An open connection with AI
Neo learns new household tasks through a technique calledembodiedAI.
This enables machines to acquire skills by interacting with their environment.
Customers can also manually move the bot with a VR headset and controllers.
They can even chat with Neo, which has a conversational functionality thatBrnich compares to ChatGPT.
That comparison may not be coincidental.OpenAIwas a lead investor in 1XsSeries A raise of$23.5mnlast year.
Funding plans
The latestcash injection comes from a Series B round.
Among the investors isEQT Ventures, a VC firm thatspreviously backed startups includingVarjoandEinride.
With an extra $100mn in the wallet, that reality is coming closer.
That could put it in a footrace race with another bipedal:Teslas Optimus robot.
Elon Musk hopes to launch the robot by 2027.
Musks timelines arenotoriously unreliable, but one things certain: the market for humanoids is heating up.
Story byThomas Macaulay
Thomas is the managing editor of TNW.
He leads our coverage of European tech and oversees our talented team of writers.
Away from work, he e(show all)Thomas is the managing editor of TNW.
He leads our coverage of European tech and oversees our talented team of writers.
Away from work, he enjoys playing chess (badly) and the guitar (even worse).
