Sector Snapshot: Robotics Startups On Fire As Venture Funding Surges To Record Numbers In 2026

figure — robotics startup funding hit a record high in 2025, per Crunchbase data. And that trend is continuing in 2026 so far, with funding to the sector already eclipsing 2025’s totals.

Globally, robotics startups have so far raised $18.8 billion in 2026, compared to $15 billion in the full year of 2025. The figure also handily surpasses the $14.1 billion raised in the peak venture funding year of 2021, and we still have more than six months of fundraising left. The impressive rise in funding reflects a marked shift in perception among venture investors about the robotics sector, which was traditionally considered an expensive, asset-heavy hardware gamble. In particular, investors appear to be drawn to startups working on embodied AI, or artificial intelligence with a physical body that interacts with the real world in real time. Noteworthy recent rounds The surge in funding is driven by a number of robotics-focused startups raising considerable capital from investors this year. Also, interestingly, two of the five largest raises in 2026 to date have been by Austin-based companies. Topping the list of largest deals in 2026 so far is Austin-based Saronic, a defense tech startup focused on autonomous sea vessels. In March, the 4-year-old company raised $1.75 billion in Series D funding, bringing its total funding to around $2.6 billion. Kleiner Perkins led the round, which set Saronic’s valuation at $9.25 billion — more than double its Series C level in 2025. Earlier this month, Germany’s Neura Robotics, a developer of AI infrastructure for robots to learn, collaborate and operate across real-world environments, said it secured up to $1.4 billion in Series C funding. Tether led that raise. In January, Skild AI, a robotics company building an “omni-bodied” brain to operate any robot for any task, announced that it had raised $1.4 billion, tripling its valuation to over $14 billion. That financing came just over seven months after Skild raised a $135 million Series B at a $4.5 billion valuation. SoftBank Group led the startup’s latest round, which included participation from NVentures, Nvidia’s venture capital arm. On June 15, Beijing-based Shihang Intelligent, which creates water robots and intelligent unmanned equipment, raised $1 billion in a massive Series A round led by Beijing Shanghe Momentum Private Equity Fund.