SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 06, 2026 — Minerva Humanoids announced it has raised approximately $10 million in a pre-seed round led by General Catalyst, with Long Journey Ventures and Credo Ventures as co-leads and participation from MVP Ventures, Kaya, RunwayVC, Compound, Founders Embassy, Hugging Face, Codecademy, YG, Walter Ventures, Tiny Ventures, Chaotica and Babylon. The round brings Minerva out of stealth as it launches its first paid pilots this fall.
Founded by CEO Sandor Felber and CTO Maurice Rahme, Minerva designed Roger, a purpose-built semi-autonomous humanoid robot that enables trained specialists to handle hazardous onshore and offshore oil and gas operations and public safety tasks from a safe distance while retaining full control.
“People are dying every day doing jobs the rest of the world takes for granted,” said Felber. “We didn’t set out to replace the people doing them. We set out to build a robot that lets them do the job efficiently from the comfort of their office or home, without asking them to risk their lives for our safety or our energy.”
Work on offshore rigs, explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), and hazardous material response still puts people directly in harm’s way. Roughly every 75 minutes, an energy worker somewhere in the world tragically falls victim to their job, amounting to around 7,000 deaths a year. NATO consistently cites EOD and hazardous material response teams at the highest risk segment of each unit, with technicians relying on decades-old wheeled, single-arm robots that lack the dexterity required for complex tasks.
Minerva Humanoids’ Roger for hazardous energy and public safety tasks
Minerva says Roger was designed around the judgment, skill and dexterity of the highly trained specialists who already perform this work, allowing operators to apply their expertise while keeping their bodies away from danger.
“Every EOD operator knows the long walk. When the robot can’t complete the task and the operator has to put the EOD suit on and approach the device alone,” said British Special Forces veteran and Head of Hazardous Operations at Minerva Humanoids, Dominic Asquith. “The tracked, single-arm systems we’ve relied on for decades send a lot of people on that walk because the task needs two hands and real dexterity. Roger is a step-change for our community: the operator’s judgement and hands are on the device while their body stays in the safety of the command post. I’d have wanted this on every deployment I did.”
Funding and pilots
The approximately $10 million pre-seed raise, led by General Catalyst with Long Journey Ventures and Credo Ventures as co-leads, includes a range of venture and strategic participants. Minerva said the financing brings the company out of stealth and supports the launch of its first paid pilots in the fall.
