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Minerva Humanoids exited stealth with a $10M pre-seed round led by General Catalyst to build teleoperated humanoid robots for bomb disposal and oil and gas work.
Key Takeaways
- Minerva Humanoids raised a $10M pre-seed round, announced October 6, 2026, led by General Catalyst.
- Its robot, Roger, is operated by a specialist in a VR headset, with onboard AI handling balance and navigation.
- Paid pilots start this autumn, including testing at two of the world's 10 busiest airports.
Lead
Minerva Humanoids came out of stealth on October 6, 2026 with a $10M pre-seed round led by General Catalyst. The San Francisco company builds a semi-autonomous humanoid called Roger for work that kills people: explosive ordnance disposal, hazardous material response, and maintenance on offshore rigs and high-voltage plants. Long Journey Ventures and Credo Ventures co-led the round. The company did not disclose a valuation.
Who Is Behind Minerva and Who Else Invested?
Minerva was founded at the end of 2025 by CEO Sandor Felber and CTO Maurice Rahme. Felber has a background in humanoid robotics research at MIT CSAIL and worked on Tesla's Optimus program. Rahme spent six years at Boston Dynamics, where he was technical lead on the Stretch warehouse robot.
Beyond the three leads, the round includes MVP Ventures, Kaya, RunwayVC, Compound, Founders Embassy, Hugging Face, Codecademy, YG, Walter Ventures, Tiny Ventures, Chaotica and Babylon. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Sindelfingen, Germany.
What Does Roger Actually Do?
Roger is a dual-arm humanoid that a trained specialist controls through a VR headset from a safe distance, which can be an office or a home. Minerva's AI control system, called Minerva Intelligence, handles balance, fall recovery and navigation, so the operator focuses on the task rather than on keeping the machine upright.
The design targets a specific gap. Existing bomb disposal robots are decades-old single-arm units with limited dexterity. Minerva says around 7,000 energy workers die each year. Felber framed the product as an aid to existing workers: "We didn't set out to replace the people doing them."
The company says it went from concept to a functioning prototype in five months. Early units are built in Germany, and Minerva plans production in both Germany and the United States. It also pitches a "Western sovereign" stack, with software and AI developed mainly in the US.
Is $10M a Large Pre-Seed for Robotics?
Yes. At $10M, the round sits above the 95th percentile for US AI seed-stage rounds, according to Dealroom. A company roughly a year old, with no revenue disclosed, raised the kind of money that used to mark a seed extension or a small Series A.
The size reflects how investors currently price humanoid founders with credentials from Tesla, Boston Dynamics and MIT. It also reflects the narrower pitch. General-purpose humanoids for factories and homes face long timelines and crowded competition. A teleoperated machine for bomb disposal and oil rigs has a buyer with a budget and a clear safety case, and the human operator removes the need to solve full autonomy before the first sale.
That choice carries its own risk. Teleoperation depends on low-latency links, and offshore platforms and ordnance sites rarely offer clean connectivity. The unit economics also depend on how many robots one operator can supervise, which Minerva has not disclosed.
What Traction Does Minerva Have?
Minerva has not announced revenue, but it reports early commercial contact. It plans to begin paid pilots in autumn 2026 and is testing Roger at two of the world's 10 busiest airports for public safety work. It has also demonstrated the robot at the NATO Explosive Ordnance Disposal Centre.
Pilots and showcases are not contracts. Defense and energy buyers run long procurement cycles, and safety-critical equipment needs certification before it reaches rigs or live ordnance. The pilot results will show whether the airport and energy customers convert to recurring purchases.
Strategic Context
The round follows a year of heavy capital flowing into humanoid robotics, mostly toward general-purpose designs. Minerva takes the opposite route, narrowing to hazardous work where a human specialist stays in the loop. General Catalyst's lead signals interest in that narrower thesis, though the firm's check size and ownership stake were not disclosed.
Outlook
Minerva has money, a working prototype and a set of named pilot channels, but no disclosed revenue or valuation. The next milestones are the autumn pilots, evidence that teleoperation works over real-world connections, and a move from demonstrations to purchase orders. A follow-on round will likely depend on those results.
