Recent venture capital reports from KPMG and PitchBook indicate that AI continues to lead investment activity and accounts for more than half of investments this year. CB Insights data suggests investor interest within AI is shifting toward industrial humanoid robotics. Some investors say increased capital in AI is contributing to higher expectations in robotics and that some startups are making claims that are not yet supported by commercial results.
Humanoid robot (Source: Canva)
Last quarter, industrial humanoid robotics recorded 17 deals, the highest total among categories. AI remained a leading focus for investors across several segments, including coding AI agents and copilots with 14 deals and end-to-end software development AI agents with 12 deals.
Rapid growth in the sector has raised concerns about a potential bubble. China’s top economic planning agency said the humanoid robotics industry should “balance the speed against the risks of bubbles,” Bloomberg reported.
Investor interest in humanoid robots is being driven largely by AI, which has expanded the commercial potential for these systems.
Daiva Rakauskaitė, partner and manager at Aneli Capital, which manages a €35 million fund for early-stage startups in Central and Eastern Europe, said today’s AI-driven investment boom has similarities to the dot-com bubble in the early 2000s and could leave many startups exposed. She said she expects an AI bubble to burst within two to three years.
Companies worldwide are showing robot prototypes performing activities such as running and boxing, which has drawn interest from users and investors. However, these demonstrations have limited commercial use today.
Industrial humanoid robotics faces similar constraints. Companies still must address real-time inference, dexterity, reliability and cost, which can limit early use cases to factories and warehouses with predictable tasks, according to a CB Insights report.
Rakauskaitė said that with investment interest often driven by hype, venture capital firms should focus on fundamentals and prioritize revenue over growth at all costs.
Despite early signs of a potential bubble in humanoid robotics, she remains confident in the broader robotics sector, where lower hardware costs and advances in AI are supporting real-world deployment.
According to Rakauskaitė, robotics presents an opportunity for CEE startups. The region’s proximity to Germany, Europe’s largest industrial robotics market, can support scaling efforts.
For more information, visit anelicapital.com.
Filed Under: AI Engineering Collective, AI • machine learning, Trends
