Insider Brief
- South Korean robotics company WIRobotics raised about $68 million in a Series B funding round as the company expands beyond wearable robotics and accelerates development of its humanoid robotics platform ALLEX.
- According to the company, the funding will support development and commercialization of ALLEX, a humanoid platform focused on human-level object manipulation, while expanding work with Nvidia and Amazon Web Services on physical AI technologies.
- WIRobotics said it plans to launch a research-focused humanoid platform later this year and move toward broader commercialization and mass production, building on movement data collected from more than 3,000 deployed WIM wearable robotics systems.
South Korean robotics company WIRobotics has raised about $68 million in a Series B funding round as the company expands beyond wearable robotics to speed up development of its humanoid robotics platform.
The round was led by JB Investment and included participation from InterVest, Hana Ventures, Smilegate Investment, SBVA, NH Investment & Securities, Company K Partners, GU Investment and FuturePlay, according to the company.
WIRobotics said it plans to use the funding to expand development of ALLEX, its humanoid robotics platform aimed at human-level object manipulation and interaction capabilities. The company said it is also working with Nvidia and Amazon Web Services on physical AI technologies and recently joined Nvidia’s Physical AI Fellowship initiative.
“This investment represents global recognition that the real-world movement data and control technologies accumulated through wearable robotics can evolve into next-generation humanoid robotics,” co-CEO Yeonbaek Lee said. “We aim to accelerate the arrival of humanoid robots capable of interacting naturally with people.”
The company said it plans to launch a research-focused humanoid platform later this year while pursuing broader commercialization and mass-production readiness next year. WIRobotics is also discussing proof-of-concept work with a global automotive manufacturer tied to factory deployment environments.
WIRobotics is building on data gathered from its WIM wearable walking-assistance robot, which it has sold more than 3,000 WIM units, and used years of movement and gait data to develop control systems meant to improve humanoid motion and interaction.
The company said revenue has more than doubled annually in recent years and that first-quarter 2026 revenue already surpassed its full-year 2024 results. WIRobotics indicated it is also expanding internationally through a new North American operation in California and partnerships across Europe and Asia.
Co-CEO Yongjae Kim pointed out the participation from all prior Series A investors reflected continued confidence in WIRobotics’ technology and long-term growth prospects as competition in the global humanoid robotics market intensifies.
“Our mission is to realize humanoids capable of fundamentally human-like interaction and force control, driving a paradigm shift in high-performance manipulation technologies,” Kim noted. “This investment will further strengthen Korea’s humanoid robotics leadership while accelerating mass-production systems and global supply-chain development. Leveraging our proprietary hardware and control technologies, we plan to rapidly expand into Physical AI and intelligent service domains and lead the global humanoid robotics market.”
Image credit: WIRobotics
