# Pablo Palafox

> Pablo Palafox is the Co-Founder and CEO of HappyRobot, a San Francisco-based AI workforce platform that deploys autonomous voice agents for logistics and freight operations. A Spanish-born roboticist who left a PhD program at the Technical University of Munich in 2022, he has built HappyRobot from a YC S23 startup into a company serving 70+ enterprise clients including DHL, Ryder, Schneider, and Werner - raising $103M across three funding rounds, most recently a $44M Series B led by Base10 Partners with participation from Andreessen Horowitz.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at HappyRobot
- **Organizations:** HappyRobot, Y Combinator, Technical University of Munich, Technical University of Madrid, Meta (internship)
- **From:** Spain
- **Nationality:** Spanish
- **Education:** Bachelor's in Robotics and Electronics, Technical University of Madrid, Master's in Industrial Engineering, Technical University of Madrid, Master's in Industrial Engineering / Mechanical Engineering (with high distinction), Technical University of Munich (TUM), PhD in Computer Vision & Deep Learning (not completed - left to found HappyRobot), Technical University of Munich (TUM)
- **Known for:** Co-founded HappyRobot, which raised $103M+ across three funding rounds including a16z and Base10 Partners, Grew company 30x in one year from founding to $2.2M ARR with a lean team, Built enterprise AI platform serving DHL, Ryder, Schneider, Werner, and 65+ other logistics giants

## Career timeline

- **2013-2018** — Studied Robotics and Electronics at Technical University of Madrid
- **2018-2020** — Completed Master's in Industrial Engineering at Technical University of Madrid
- **2019-2021** — Earned Master's at Technical University of Munich with high distinction; researched Visual SLAM and 3D scene understanding under Angela Dai and Matthias Niessner
- **2021** — Awarded postgraduate scholarship (given to only 40 Spanish students abroad); selected among 96 most promising university students in Spain out of 5,000+ candidates
- **2021-2022** — Summer research internship at Meta in the Virtual Reality division
- **2022** — Left PhD program at TUM to co-found HappyRobot with brother Javier Palafox (COO) and Luis Paarup (CTO)
- **2023** — Accepted into Y Combinator Summer 2023 (YC S23) batch
- **2023** — Raised pre-seed round backed by Array Ventures and angel investors
- **2024** — Hit $1.8M ARR with a 12-person team; grew 30x in one year to $2.2M ARR
- **2024-12** — Raised $15.6M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) with RyderVentures
- **2025-09** — Raised $44M Series B led by Base10 Partners with a16z, Array Ventures, Samsara, Y Combinator, and others
- **2026** — HappyRobot serves 70+ enterprise clients including DHL, Ryder, Schneider, Werner; 110 employees; ARR 'well into eight figures'

## Achievements

- Co-founded HappyRobot, which raised $103M+ across three funding rounds including a16z and Base10 Partners
- Grew company 30x in one year from founding to $2.2M ARR with a lean team
- Built enterprise AI platform serving DHL, Ryder, Schneider, Werner, and 65+ other logistics giants
- HappyRobot's AI agents negotiate approximately 10% better freight margins than human brokers
- Reduced appointment scheduling time from one week to under 30 minutes for enterprise clients
- Accepted into Y Combinator S23 batch
- Earned dual Master's degrees (Madrid + Munich) with high distinction
- Selected as one of 96 most promising university students in Spain (from 5,000+ candidates)
- Awarded postgraduate scholarship given to only 40 Spanish students studying abroad
- Research at TUM covered Visual SLAM, 3D scene understanding, deep learning-based scene flow, and autonomous systems

## Latest updates

- **2026-05** — HappyRobot at 110 employees, serving 70+ enterprise customers, ARR 'well into eight figures'
- **2025-09** — HappyRobot raised $44M Series B led by Base10 Partners; investors include a16z, Array Ventures, Samsara Ventures, Y Combinator
- **2025** — Pablo speaking at major industry events including MWC Barcelona, FreightWaves, and Retail Supply Chain & Logistics Expo 2026
- **2024-12** — Raised $15.6M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz to scale AI logistics platform
- **2024** — HappyRobot grew 30x in one year, reached $2.2M ARR with 12-person team

## Links

- Website: https://happyrobot.ai
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/pablorpalafox
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/happyrobot_ai

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/pablo-palafox
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-24