# Apptronik

> Apptronik is an Austin-based robotics company building Apollo, a general-purpose humanoid robot designed to work alongside people in manufacturing, logistics and other physically demanding settings. Spun out of the University of Texas at Austin's Human Centered Robotics Lab in 2016, the company grew from custom actuator work for NASA into one of the most heavily funded humanoid robot developers, with commercial pilots at Mercedes-Benz and GXO and an AI partnership with Google DeepMind's Gemini Robotics team.

- **Founded:** 2016
- **Headquarters:** Austin, Texas, United States
- **Founders:** Jeff Cardenas (Co-Founder & CEO), Nicholas Paine (Co-Founder & CTO), Luis Sentis (Co-Founder (UT Austin professor)), Bill Helmsing (Co-Founder), Bill Welch (Co-Founder)
- **Team size:** ~450 employees
- **Products:** Apollo, Apollo 2, Astra, Robot Park, Custom actuators & control systems
- **Notable:** Built 15+ robotic systems, including contributions to NASA's Valkyrie humanoid, before launching its own commercial robot., Reached an approximately $5 billion valuation in February 2026., Raised over $935M in Series A funding plus a further $520M, with total capital reported above $2 billion.

## Products & services

- **Apollo** — A general-purpose humanoid robot standing roughly 5'8" (1.73 m) and weighing about 160 lbs (72.6 kg), able to carry payloads up to ~55 lbs (25 kg) and run about 4 hours per battery pack. Designed for logistics, manufacturing and retail tasks alongside human workers.
- **Apollo 2** — The current Apollo platform, offered in both bipedal and wheeled-base configurations and built to learn real-world work through large-scale data collection.
- **Astra** — A humanoid upper body for dexterous bimanual manipulation, developed for supply-chain and manipulation research; a precursor to Apollo's arms and hands.
- **Robot Park** — A 90,000 sq ft flagship humanoid data-collection and training facility in Austin where Apollo robots perform real jobs to generate training data, anchoring a global network of Robot Parks at partner and customer sites.
- **Custom actuators & control systems** — Series elastic and liquid-cooled actuators plus realtime control software, originating in Apptronik's early NASA work, that power its robots and were sold as standalone modules.

## Achievements

- Built 15+ robotic systems, including contributions to NASA's Valkyrie humanoid, before launching its own commercial robot.
- Reached an approximately $5 billion valuation in February 2026.
- Raised over $935M in Series A funding plus a further $520M, with total capital reported above $2 billion.
- Secured the first publicly announced commercial deployment of a humanoid at Mercedes-Benz.
- Named an industry-leading AI partner of Google DeepMind's Gemini Robotics program.
- Opened a 90,000 sq ft Robot Park humanoid data-training facility in Austin (2026).

## Latest updates

- **2026-06** — Unveiled Apollo 2 and opened an expanded 90,000 sq ft Robot Park data-collection and training facility in Austin, teasing a new robot.
- **2026-02** — Raised an additional $520M at a ~$5B valuation to ramp Apollo production and expand commercial and pilot deployments.
- **2025** — Closed a Series A extension bringing the round to over $935M; announced Jabil manufacturing partnership.
- **2025** — Announced strategic AI partnership with Google DeepMind to build humanoids powered by Gemini Robotics.
- **2024-03** — Entered a commercial agreement with Mercedes-Benz to pilot Apollo in manufacturing facilities.

## Links

- Website: https://apptronik.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/apptronik-inc.
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/Apptronik
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@apptronikofficial
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apptronikofficial/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/apptronik/

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/apptronik
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-22