Humanoid robot company 1X Technologies, based in Mountain View, California, has raised $100 million in Series B funding with participation from Swedish venture capital firm EQT Ventures.

The company was able to raise more than $125 million in less than a year after raising $23.5 million in Series A2 funding from OpenAI and Tiger Global in early 2023.

This funding will support the production of safe and advanced androids at commercial scale. 1X Technologies’ biggest goal to date is to meet global employee needs.

The funds will also support 1X’s corporate customers in logistics and security.

NEO – the new home assistant

Meet NEO

The humanoid robot company has intentions to use the new capital, for its second generation Android NEO. Designed as a bipedal humanoid, NEO has a mission to help with everyday domestic activities.

The company asserts that what distinguishes NEO from other humanoid robots is its gentle and inherently secure design. In contrast to industrial machines, NEO is devoid of pinch-points or potential hazards, aligning with our dedication to providing a secure and user-friendly Android for consumers.

This focus on safety is crucial in bringing our vision to fruition, aiming to introduce a dependable and practical android into everyday life.

NEO’s soft construction resembling human features makes it safer and more comfortable than other robots. With a head, arms and legs similar to our own, NEO interacts with the world in a familiar way, performing activities such as walking, grasping objects and expressing emotions through facial cues.

Although NEO finds application in various sectors such as security, logistics, manufacturing, machine control and complex task management, its overall vision extends to becoming a valuable home assistant.

Envisioned for a long-term role in performing activities such as cleaning and organizing, NEO aims to integrate seamlessly into home life, increasing convenience and support for users.

While the company’s EVE android is currently working in logistics and guarding serving the enterprise market, NEO will be introduced into domestic environments, entering the household market first. It is on a fast track to market release and will be launched and available for consumers to pre-order within a short time.

The capital was led by an undisclosed global fintech fund with participation from existing investors East Ventures, GGV Capital, eWTP and Emtek.

Fuse uses mobile applications to offer an agent-focused service, B2A (Business to Agent/ Broker). Fuse Pro app enables agents and broker partners to maximize choices for their customers. The startup also has B2C and B2B2C (micro insurance and financial institute), which provides digital small-ticket size insurance products, distributing insurance products cost-effectively to end customers by partnerships with e-commerce channels like Tokopedia. Andy Yeung, CEO of Fuse said:

“We deeply believe that digital insurance transformation can help more people get protection with insurance, and hopefully, the insurance penetration rate can increase substantially in the coming years in Indonesia as well as Southeast Asia.”

The company has exceeded $70 million in gross written premium for the first three quarters of 2021. The startup has the largest GWP in Indonesia and Southeast Asia.

Fuse has over 460 employees, with branch offices in Indonesia, Vietnam, and China.

The investment, which comes 11 months after uLesson raised a $7.5 million Series A, was completed by five investors: Tencent, Nielsen Ventures, and existing investors Owl Ventures, TLcom Capital and Founder Collective. It is the largest disclosed investment in an African edtech startup.

The startup first launched by providing a product pack of SD cards and dongles with pre-recorded videos for K-12 students. They can either access lessons via streaming or use the SD cards to download and store the content.

uLesson has introduced new features for an all-encompassing edtech play for this demographic. It added quizzes and a homework help feature to connect students with tutors from universities. The startup also launched a one-to-many live class feature with polls and leaderboards and a one-to-one live experience for DevKids, a coding class independent of the core uLesson platform. The CEO, who also founded e-commerce platforms DealDey and Konga said:

“What we want ultimately is different strata of free users that can use the app and can pay for a premium experience to attend live classes or get the homework helper.”

The platform is available in other markets, such as South Africa, Sierra Leone, the UK, Liberia, Gambia and the US.

The Partners, who co-led the Series B round were Sequoia Capital India, Insight Partners and Insignia Ventures Flip.

The startup plans to use the fresh capital to accelerate its business expansion further, strengthen its operations in Indonesia, advance technology and expand its engineering and product teams. Rafi Putra Arriyan, co-founder and CEO of Flip said:

“This new funding is a testament to our team’s commitment and persistence. It gives us the resources we need to fuel and accelerate our mission to build innovative solutions that simplify money movement in Indonesia.”

Over 250 team members were added by Flip to build its financial services. The company has increased its team size by 140 % over the past months.