ARK Invest joins $403M raise for AI robotics firm Apptronik
Cryptocurrency-friendly investment firm ARK Invest has joined a massive Series A funding round for Apptronik, a Texas-based firm building humanoid robots.
Apptronik, on March 18, announced the successful close of an oversubscribed $403M Series A funding round, adding another $53 million to the $350 million round disclosed in February.
After investing in Apptronik’s Series A round, ARK has enabled investors to access the company through its ARK Venture Fund (ARKVX), which focuses on “disruptive innovation.” Source: ARK Funds “After investing in their Series A round, the ARK Venture Fund is proud to offer investors access to Apptronik! Download SoFi and gain access today,” ARK wrote in an X post on Tuesday. Led by California-based B Capital and Texas-based Capital Factory, the original $350 million Series A raise also featured participation from tech mogul Google. The latest raise included new investors such as the German automotive giant Mercedes-Benz, early-stage tech investor Japan Post Capital and RyderVentures, a corporate venture capital arm of Ryder System, as well as a syndicate led by Korea Investment Partners. Apptronik’s oversubscribed raise reflects strong market demand and investor confidence in the transformative power of embodied artificial intelligence, or integration of AI into physical systems. Founded in 2016, Apptronik is a robotics company that spun out of the University of Texas at Austin’s Human-Centered Robotics Lab with the goal of bringing forth the next generation of robots. The company says it has developed 15 robotic systems, including the humanoid robot NASA Valkyrie, before unveiling Apollo — an AI-powered humanoid designed for industrial work. Apptronik’s humanoid robot at trailer unloading. Source: Apptronik “We believe that it is not Man versus Machine, but Man plus Machine that will take humanity into the next stage of evolution,” Apptronik’s website reads. According to TechCrunch, Apptronik’s humanoid work dates back to 2013, when the Human Centered Robotics Lab at the University of Austin competed in the NASA-DARPA Robotics Challenge, focusing on a humanoid robot called Valkyrie. Google’s AI division, DeepMind, has also partnered with Apptronik to deliver embodied AI for its bipedal robots. Related: Not every AI agent needs its own cryptocurrency: CZ ARK Invest’s investment in Apptronik further strengthens the company’s commitment to innovation and technology, as the company’s name acronym itself refers to “Active Research Knowledge.” Apart from Apptronik, ARK has supported a wide number of AI platforms, including Anthropic, OpenAI, Groq and many others. In October 2024, ARK reportedly agreed to invest at least $250 million in OpenAI’s funding round, with the AI firm becoming its third-largest holding in the Ark Venture Fund, accounting for 5% of its total assets. Seven largest companies in the Ark Venture Fund. Source: ARK As of Feb. 28, Elon Musk’s space technology firm, SpaceX, accounts for the largest share of the fund with a weight of roughly 16%, according to the official website. Magazine: Sex robots, agent contracts a hitman, artificial vaginas: AI Eye goes wild
Mercedes-Benz, Japan Post and Google among investors
Apptronik’s vision: Man plus machine
Bitcoin (BTC) $ 96,191.00
Ethereum (ETH) $ 1,826.59
Tether (USDT) $ 1.00
XRP (XRP) $ 2.19
BNB (BNB) $ 598.23
Solana (SOL) $ 146.78
USDC (USDC) $ 0.999956
Dogecoin (DOGE) $ 0.176386
Cardano (ADA) $ 0.709828
TRON (TRX) $ 0.245451
Lido Staked Ether (STETH) $ 1,825.60
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) $ 96,146.00
Sui (SUI) $ 3.29
Chainlink (LINK) $ 14.25
Avalanche (AVAX) $ 20.70
Stellar (XLM) $ 0.270837
LEO Token (LEO) $ 8.94
USDS (USDS) $ 1.00
Toncoin (TON) $ 3.09
Shiba Inu (SHIB) $ 0.000013
Hedera (HBAR) $ 0.180716
Wrapped stETH (WSTETH) $ 2,195.62
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 365.28
Hyperliquid (HYPE) $ 20.94
Litecoin (LTC) $ 86.50
Polkadot (DOT) $ 4.04
WETH (WETH) $ 1,826.85
Monero (XMR) $ 285.14
Binance Bridged USDT (BNB Smart Chain) (BSC-USD) $ 1.00
Bitget Token (BGB) $ 4.38
Ethena USDe (USDE) $ 1.00
WhiteBIT Coin (WBT) $ 28.84
Pi Network (PI) $ 0.585751
Coinbase Wrapped BTC (CBBTC) $ 96,205.00
Wrapped eETH (WEETH) $ 1,949.20
Pepe (PEPE) $ 0.000008
Dai (DAI) $ 1.00
Aptos (APT) $ 5.21
Bittensor (TAO) $ 357.82
sUSDS (SUSDS) $ 1.05
OKB (OKB) $ 51.45
Uniswap (UNI) $ 5.09
NEAR Protocol (NEAR) $ 2.44
BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) $ 1.00
Ondo (ONDO) $ 0.877840
Gate (GT) $ 21.71
Aave (AAVE) $ 171.46
Ethereum Classic (ETC) $ 16.64
Kaspa (KAS) $ 0.096508
Internet Computer (ICP) $ 4.72
Mantle (MNT) $ 0.731449
Cronos (CRO) $ 0.089641
Tokenize Xchange (TKX) $ 30.53
Render (RENDER) $ 4.59
Official Trump (TRUMP) $ 11.40
VeChain (VET) $ 0.026167
USD1 (USD1) $ 1.00
Ethena Staked USDe (SUSDE) $ 1.17
POL (ex-MATIC) (POL) $ 0.229361
Lombard Staked BTC (LBTC) $ 96,079.00
Cosmos Hub (ATOM) $ 4.21
Fasttoken (FTN) $ 4.29
Algorand (ALGO) $ 0.207705
Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET) $ 0.682083
Filecoin (FIL) $ 2.62
Sonic (prev. FTM) (S) $ 0.545282
Ethena (ENA) $ 0.293502
Jupiter Perpetuals Liquidity Provider Token (JLP) $ 4.11
Arbitrum (ARB) $ 0.319839
Celestia (TIA) $ 2.43
Solv Protocol SolvBTC (SOLVBTC) $ 95,999.00
First Digital USD (FDUSD) $ 0.998798
KuCoin (KCS) $ 10.77
Bonk (BONK) $ 0.000017
Worldcoin (WLD) $ 0.958408
Maker (MKR) $ 1,515.69
NEXO (NEXO) $ 1.25
Jupiter (JUP) $ 0.431983
Quant (QNT) $ 85.45
Binance Staked SOL (BNSOL) $ 153.86
Flare (FLR) $ 0.018533
Stacks (STX) $ 0.771372
XDC Network (XDC) $ 0.073525
Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) $ 1.76
Optimism (OP) $ 0.673809
EOS (EOS) $ 0.734836
Binance-Peg WETH (WETH) $ 1,826.88
Fartcoin (FARTCOIN) $ 1.07
Sei (SEI) $ 0.208021
Kelp DAO Restaked ETH (RSETH) $ 1,902.53
Immutable (IMX) $ 0.572786
USDT0 (USDT0) $ 1.00
Story (IP) $ 3.78
Injective (INJ) $ 9.70
Curve DAO (CRV) $ 0.704477
PayPal USD (PYUSD) $ 0.999661
The Graph (GRT) $ 0.094380
Binance Bridged USDC (BNB Smart Chain) (USDC) $ 0.999945
Wrapped BNB (WBNB) $ 598.14
Rocket Pool ETH (RETH) $ 2,072.53
