Microagi, a Munich-based startup focused on humanoid robotics, has closed a $55 million seed round — the largest seed financing ever completed in Germany. Founded roughly ten months ago by former Formula 1 engineers, the company says it will use the capital to accelerate the collection and use of the data required to train robots for factories and households.
Microagi: betting on data to train humanoids
The startup collects images and action sequences of human tasks — sorting items, washing dishes and other everyday operations — by sending operators wearing head-mounted cameras into factories and customers’ homes. According to CTO Nico Nussbaum, “we place our engineers on site with each customer; the system learns from their real-world operations and feeds that data back into the learning loop for the next session. So every month they spend on-site, they gain a bit of advantage over competitors.”
Investors are wagering on a dramatic scale-up of these datasets. “No one knows how much data it takes to train robots,” says CEO Bercan Kilic, adding that startups are essentially betting on the need to accumulate very large volumes of data.
A round led by Hummingbird with European VC support
The $55M round was led by Hummingbird and included participation from Northzone, LocalGlobe, Village Global and Redalpine. The round closed rapidly, reflecting strong investor interest in data-driven approaches to humanoid robotics and industrial automation.
