RobCo, a Munich maker of factory robots, is now valued at more than $1 billion, double the roughly $500 million it fetched in January.
The transaction announced on Monday was not a conventional funding round. Silicon Republic reports that it was a secondary sale of more than $40 million in shares, letting employees cash out part of their holdings. Other coverage describes some new investment alongside it.
The buyers included existing backers Sequoia, Lightspeed and Lingotto, plus newcomers Cherry Ventures and European Tech Collective. Roman Hölzl, the chief executive, said there was strong demand to invest and the company used the moment to strengthen itself.
RobCo was founded in 2020 by three researchers from the Technical University of Munich. It builds robotic systems for small and mid-sized manufacturers that learn tasks by demonstration rather than programming. It says more than 1,000 are deployed, with BMW among the customers.
The company raised $100 million in a Series C in January and has offices in San Francisco and Austin.
The valuation leans on what comes next. Alfie is a two-armed robot that RobCo describes as autonomous and self-learning, aimed at varied, unstructured factory work. Its commercial launch is set for 4 March 2027 at a company event in Munich.
Europe has few robotics firms at this size, and most of the money chasing what investors call physical AI has gone to American and Chinese humanoid makers. RobCo’s bet is on arms fixed to a factory floor, not legs.
The missing number is revenue. A doubling set by the sale of about $40 million in stock is a price struck at the margin, and whether Alfie holds up on a real production line will not be known before March.
