Minerva Humanoids has emerged from stealth with about $10 million in pre-seed funding to develop semi-autonomous humanoid robots for hazardous work in energy operations and public safety.
The funding round was led by General Catalyst, with Long Journey Ventures and Credo Ventures serving as co-leads. Other investors include MVP Ventures, Kaya, RunwayVC, Compound, Founders Embassy, Hugging Face, Codecademy, YG, Walter Ventures, Tiny Ventures, Chaotica and Babylon.
Founded at the end of 2025, Minerva is headquartered in San Francisco, with additional offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Sindelfingen, Germany.
The company’s first robot, called Roger, is designed to allow trained specialists to perform dangerous tasks remotely instead of entering hazardous environments themselves.
Minerva is initially targeting industries and situations such as onshore and offshore oil and gas operations, high-voltage facilities, explosive ordnance disposal and hazardous-material response.
Remote Human Control
Rather than fully replacing human operators, Minerva uses a semi-autonomous approach. A trained specialist can wear a virtual reality headset to see through the robot’s cameras and remotely control its movements and manipulation.
The company says this approach is designed for situations where human expertise is still needed but the physical environment is too dangerous for a person to enter.
Roger is being developed specifically for hazardous environments rather than as a general-purpose humanoid. Minerva said it moved from its initial concept to a walking prototype in five months.
Its Minerva Intelligence software supports functions such as balance, fall recovery and navigation. The system also translates an operator’s movements into actions performed by the robot, with low-latency controls designed to provide fast responses.
Built for Dangerous Jobs
Minerva believes humanoid robots could help in tasks where existing robotic systems may not have enough mobility or two-handed dexterity.
For example, in explosive ordnance disposal, Roger could allow a technician to work from a safer location in situations where a traditional wheeled robot may not be able to complete the task.
The company said its software and AI are primarily developed in the US, while its first Roger prototypes are manufactured and assembled in Germany. Minerva plans to eventually manufacture robots in both Germany and the US and said it aims to avoid dependence on single-source Chinese components.
Experienced Robotics Team
Minerva was founded by CEO Sandor Felber and CTO Maurice Rahme.
Felber previously worked on humanoid robotics research at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and on Tesla’s Optimus program. Rahme spent six years at Boston Dynamics and was one of the technical leads on the Stretch robot.
Before its formal launch, Minerva demonstrated its technology at the NATO Explosive Ordnance Disposal Centre of Excellence in Slovakia. The company has also tested its system for public-safety applications at airports and said it is exploring deployments at two of the world’s 10 busiest airports.
The company is also working with academic partners on robotics for hazardous environments, including research with Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence and the University of Waterloo.
Minerva plans to use its new funding to continue developing its robot hardware and AI systems as it begins its first paid pilots.
