Agile Robots raised $500 million in a SoftBank-led Series F round valuing the Munich robotics company at $8.5 billion, it said on 12 November, according to AFP. The financing gives the maker of humanoid robots and robotic arms capital for expansion in the United States and more production capacity in Germany.
Key points
- SoftBank led the $500 million Series F round, with Nvidia and Hitachi among the participants.
- The $8.5 billion valuation exceeds the approximately $7 billion valuation reported for German peer Neura Robotics in June.
- Agile Robots says its factory near Munich can produce up to 10,000 humanoid robots a year.
SoftBank returns for Agile Robots’ Series F
SoftBank, the Japanese technology investor, led the round. Nvidia and Japan’s Hitachi also participated. Agile Robots works in physical AI, developing robots that perform tasks in industrial settings rather than producing software outputs alone. It was founded in 2018 as a spinout from the German Aerospace Center.
The round brings Agile Robots’ total funding to $2 billion, Quartz reported. T.Capital also took part. SoftBank previously led the company’s $220 million Series C in 2021, The Next Web reported. The new financing extends an existing investment relationship as Agile Robots seeks to build capacity for a larger market.
The valuation is above the approximately $7 billion assigned to Neura Robotics, another German robotics start-up, in June, The Next Web reported. An Agile Robots spokesman described the company to AFP as Europe’s most valuable physical AI robotics firm. Agile Robots separately says it is the continent’s most valuable privately owned robotics company.
Chief executive and founder Zhaopeng Chen said the funding would support the US expansion, additional German production capacity and entry into new markets. The planned spending places manufacturing alongside geographic expansion in the company’s use of the new capital.
Fürstenfeldbruck factory targets 10,000 robots a year
Agile Robots opened its Fürstenfeldbruck production site near Munich early in 2026. The company says the plant can make up to 10,000 legged and wheeled humanoid robots annually. That figure describes the site’s stated capacity, while the company’s production plans set a separate measure for the number it aims to turn out.
Agile Robots is aiming to produce roughly 2,000 humanoids in 2026, Bloomberg reported. Its output could be two to three times higher in 2027, according to the same report. The company’s latest systems have entered trials with industrial customers including Volkswagen’s Audi.
Chen said in a statement that the financing would help Agile Robots build production capacity and strengthen its presence in key markets. Dennis Chang, a managing partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, said the investor backed the company’s ability to bring robotics into industrial operations.
Agile Robots reports industrial deployments
Agile Robots says it has deployed around 20,000 robots across industries including automotive, consumer electronics and logistics, AFP reported. Quartz put the company’s worldwide count at more than 20,000 robotic solutions. The company makes robotic arms as well as humanoids, giving its reported deployment figure a broader scope than its humanoid production plans.
Industrial use is also the focus of Chen’s stated ambition for robots to work alongside people in factories and warehouses. Agile Robots has been training its machines using footage of workers performing tasks, an approach Chen described at a technology event in Turin, Italy, in October. Its Agile ONE humanoid has entered initial production at Fürstenfeldbruck.
