Minerva Humanoids Raises About $10 Million to Develop Humanoid Robots for Hazardous Work

Minerva Humanoids announced on October 6, 2026, that it had raised about $10 million in pre-seed funding. The round was led by General Catalyst and co-led by Long Journey Ventures and Credo Ventures. The funding will support development of humanoid robots for hazardous work in the energy and public safety sectors. The company emerged from stealth and will launch its first paid industry pilot this month. Its semi-autonomous humanoid robot, “Roger,” is being designed to let trained professionals work remotely from outside hazardous environments.

The company identified land- and offshore oil and gas operations, explosive ordnance disposal, hazardous-materials response and public safety work as target applications. In each case, a key challenge is how much the need for people to enter hazardous areas can be reduced. Minerva said it aims to keep trained professionals outside hazardous environments while they perform tasks, suggesting that the practical viability of the system will depend more on the effectiveness of remote operation than on autonomy.

More important than the approximately $10 million pre-seed round itself is that the funding is aimed at the initial deployment of remotely operated, semi-autonomous humanoid robots for hazardous work. Rather than touting full autonomy, Roger relies on the judgment and dexterity of trained professionals, who operate it remotely using a VR headset and haptic gloves. The system divides the work among human skill for input, Minerva Intelligence for balance, recovery from falls and navigation, and the robot for carrying out tasks in hazardous environments. This is a form of physical AI that connects human expertise to a machine body. Minerva appears to follow that approach, but it is positioning its design as a humanoid robot built from the outset for high-risk tasks such as EOD and hazardous-materials response, rather than relying on quadruped robots or existing field equipment. The company’s statement that it will begin paid pilots this month also suggests that it is moving toward evaluation in real-world operations, rather than remaining at the research-demo stage. The broader industry implication is that competition in hazardous-work robotics is not based solely on the level of autonomy. Minerva keeps humans in charge of on-site decisions while separating their bodies from hazardous areas. This division of labor could lower adoption barriers in EOD, oil and gas facilities, and public safety. Commercialization questions remain, however. The next points to assess include latency, the fidelity of force feedback, which tasks can be replaced by remote operation, and whether paid pilots lead to ongoing contracts.

MVP Ventures, Kaya, RunwayVC, Compound, Founders Embassy, Hugging Face, Codecademy, YG, Walter Ventures, Tiny Ventures, Chaotica and Babylon also participated in the round. Minerva is headquartered in San Francisco. Sandor Felber is its CEO and Maurice Rahme is its CTO. Roger is operated using a VR headset and haptic gloves with force feedback. The company says its proprietary AI control system, called Minerva Intelligence, handles balance, recovery from falls and navigation, translating operator input into movement. Its stated applications include land- and offshore oil and gas operations, explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), hazardous-materials response and other public safety work.