Minerva Humanoids reports about $10M in pre-seed funding for robot Roger

Minerva Humanoids, a robotics company founded at the end of 2025, announced on 6 October 2026 that it had raised about $10 million in pre-seed funding [2]. The release described the round as bringing Minerva out of stealth, although the company's own press page carries a public research-partnership announcement dated 28 January 2026 [2][5]. General Catalyst led the round, with Long Journey Ventures and Credo Ventures as co-leads [2]. The company builds humanoids for hazardous work in onshore and offshore oil and gas and in public safety [2]. It lists San Francisco as its headquarters, with offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Sindelfingen, Germany [2].

Its first robot, Roger, is a semi-autonomous humanoid [2]. A trained specialist operates it through a VR headset, while the company's onboard AI handles balance, fall recovery and navigation [2][3]. The interview says Roger does not need a live cloud connection to run [3]. The CEO describes sensing that includes thermal imaging, but no sensor models or counts were named [3].

The company says it went from concept to a walking prototype in about five months, with software developed mainly in the United States and prototypes assembled in Germany [2]. It plans its first paid pilots this fall and, according to the CEO, is working with the FBI on testing [2][3]. Its website lists emergency response, condition monitoring and remote operations, mainly at oil and gas facilities [1].

Minerva's current product pages give initial specifications: under 100 kg outfitted, a 4–5 mph walking range, 20 degrees of freedom per hand, a 12 kg payload per hand, and 3–5+ hours of battery life depending on activity intensity [1][4]. The figures are company claims; the reviewed official pages do not provide a datasheet or independent test results [1][4].

What has not been published

• An exact weight or standing height; the official site says only that Roger is under 100 kg outfitted [1].
• Total robot degrees of freedom, battery capacity, actuator details, compute hardware or a public price [1][2][4].
• A unit count or named paying customer; the FBI is described as a testing and upcoming-pilot collaborator [2][3].
• Deployment dates beyond the first pilots [2].

The database now records Minerva Humanoids as a new company and Roger as a new robot at prototype status [1][2]. The status reflects a walking unit shown in demonstrations with no customer deployments yet [2]. The robot record includes the official site's initial figures where they can be represented without treating a bound as an exact measurement [1][4].