Apptronik founded as UT Austin Human Centered Robotics Lab spinout by Jeff Cardenas + Dr. Luis Sentis + Nick Paine; early NASA SBIR contracts to upgrade Valkyrie (NASA's R5) and DARPA actuator R&D — 30+ generations of actuators iterated over 8 years before Apollo

Apollo humanoid revealed — 173cm, 73kg, 25kg payload, 4-hour swappable battery, designed for warehouse manipulation; modular swap-out architecture enables 24/7 operation; Apptronik leverages 8 years of NASA Valkyrie + DARPA actuator IP

Mercedes-Benz pilot announced — Apollo trialed at Berlin/Sindelfingen and Hungarian Kecskemét lines for kitting and inspection; first major German automaker humanoid contract, parallels Figure-BMW deal week

Mercedes-Benz expanded pilot at Berlin plant — Apollo performs commercial inspection + parts delivery tasks in production cell; Mercedes signals path to long-term contract conversion

Google DeepMind partnership announced — collaboration on AI foundation models for Apollo, leveraging RT-2/Gemini multimodal capabilities; gives Apptronik AI partner mirroring Figure-OpenAI dynamic

Apollo bimanual pick-and-place demo — sustained 8-hour shift in lab environment; demonstrates target uptime for Mercedes/GXO-class deployments and validates swappable-battery architecture

Series A $350M co-led by B Capital + Capital Factory with Google participation; cumulative funding to $403M (originally $53M before this round); valuation ~$1.6B post-money

GXO Logistics commercial pilot announced — Apollo first long-term humanoid contract in 3PL; mirrors Agility's GXO deal with parallel pilot at Atlanta-area facility, gives GXO competitive sourcing across humanoid vendors

Series A extension oversubscribed — additional $180M extension brings round to $530M total; cumulative funding crosses $580M; mostly Google + B Capital follow-on

Apollo deployed in production at Mercedes-Benz Berlin and GXO Atlanta sites under full multi-year contract — graduates from pilot to operational status; reported $30/hour blended cost vs. teleoperation overhead

Series A extension Feb 2026 — adds $520M led by B Capital + Google at $5-5.5B valuation; cumulative funding reaches $935M; Apptronik becomes 2nd-largest humanoid private fundraise after Figure