Europeans in Japan raise $1.2M to put modular humanoid robots to work
Tech.eu Cate Lawrence
Two Europeans in Tokyo just raised $1.2M for modular humanoid robots. They’re betting Japan’s factory problem makes this the right place to build them.
Based on reporting by Tech.eu, Cate Lawrence — read the original for the full story.
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O-ID, a Tokyo startup founded by a Norwegian and a Dutch engineer, has raised $1.2 million in pre-seed funding to build what it says is one of the world’s first fully modular humanoid robots for industrial manufacturing and logistics. Chicago-based TAWANI Ventures led the round. Hustle Fund, Techstars and several angel investors also joined in, including the founders of Humanoid Guide, who were early backers of 1X.
The company was founded in Tokyo in 2025 by CEO Stian Jakobsen and CTO Simon Gormuzov, who met at Waseda University. Jakobsen came from cyber defence. Gormuzov spent years in industrial robotics. They stayed in Japan, Jakobsen said, because the country’s manufacturing base is deep, its workforce problems are obvious, and its factories already produce the kind of precision parts a robotics company needs.
That labour shortage is the backdrop to the whole pitch. Japan’s workforce is expected to shrink by more than 11 million workers by 2040, while the government has set a target of ¥10.5 trillion, or $65.1 billion, in public and private investment in “physical AI” and wants 10 million AI-equipped robots deployed by 2040. O-ID argues that industrial robots are often too rigid, while general-purpose humanoids are too hard to service when one part fails. Its answer is a machine built around modularity from the start.
The first prototype is a stationary, dual-arm robot used for integration testing and manipulation work. The next version will add mobility and more strength, and O-ID plans to show it at CES 2027. First factory pilots are also targeted for early 2027. For now, the company is focusing on repetitive jobs that factories still struggle to automate cleanly: loading, unloading, opening packaging, moving parts to conveyors, and swapping components between production stages.
The modular idea is the selling point and the bet. Instead of sending a whole robot away when a shoulder, elbow or compute unit fails, staff should be able to replace the module on site. O-ID says onboard AI sensors will watch for wear, flag parts before they fail, and help ship replacements before downtime starts. The company is not sharing manufacturing costs or pricing yet, but says the real value is lower lifetime operating cost, not just a cheap purchase price. It also says it is working toward a fully domestic supply chain in Japan, has signed a letter of intent with Sumitomo Electric Industries to explore wire harness applications, and has filed a provisional US patent for its modular connector technology.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
This is the right kind of robotics ambition: boring, industrial, and aimed at jobs factories actually need done. The industry has spent years worshipping humanoid demos that can wave a hand and call it progress; modularity is the unglamorous bit that might make robots survive outside a trade show. In other words, less sci-fi, more spare parts — which is exactly how serious manufacturing gets built.
Read more about this at: Tech.eu
