SoftBank, it seems, is not done buying robots. The Japanese group is in early talks to back a new funding round of around $800m (€700m) for Agile Robots, the Munich startup that builds robot arms, warehouse machines, and humanoids, according to Bloomberg.
SoftBank would contribute more than $300m of that total, people familiar with the discussions told the outlet, though they cautioned that the talks are at an early stage and the amounts and terms could still change.
Neither company would comment, and the round has not been independently confirmed beyond Bloomberg’s reporting, so the figures are best read as a snapshot of a negotiation rather than a done deal. What is on firmer ground is the relationship behind it.
SoftBank led Agile Robots’ $220m Series C in 2021, the round that turned the company into Germany’s first robotics unicorn, so a fresh cheque would be a return to a name already in the portfolio rather than a new acquaintance.
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Agile Robots was formed in 2018 by researchers from the German Aerospace Center, the country’s space agency, and it now employs more than 3,200 people across Germany, China, and India.
It makes both the software and the hardware, which places it in the part of the robotics market investors have grown most excited about: machines that do physical work in factories, warehouses, and logistics depots, rather than chatbots that live on a screen.
That enthusiasm has money behind it. Global investment in robotics and physical AI reached $27.6bn in 2025, according to PitchBook, more than double the previous year’s total, as investors looked for ways to put AI to work in the physical world. The thesis, roughly, is that the software has matured and the next frontier is giving it hands.
For SoftBank’s founder, Masayoshi Son, the interest is not new. The company unveiled its Pepper humanoid back in 2014, then quietly halted production in 2020. More recently it has gone on the offensive, agreeing last year to buy Swiss group ABB’s industrial robotics arm for $5.4bn, and weighing a plan to create and list an AI and robotics company called Roze.
An Agile Robots cheque would slot neatly into that pattern, part of Europe’s quietly building robotics scene that Son keeps returning to, alongside his €75bn plan for AI data centres in France.
Agile Robots would also be joining a crowded European field. Germany’s Neura Robotics recently raised about €1bn, backed by stablecoin issuer Tether, at a roughly €4bn valuation, and Norwegian-American startup 1X was reported to be in talks for as much as $1bn at a $10bn valuation.
The money is arriving faster than the robots, which remains the recurring feature of the sector. For now, Agile Robots’ round is a conversation, with the cheques still being written.
