Technology Snapshot
A concise view of platform maturity and deployment footprint.
Flagship PlatformReachy 2
Deployments100
Pollen Robotics
PrivateFrench open source robotics startup founded in 2016 in Bordeaux by former Inria researchers. Created the Reachy humanoid robot platform used at Cornell and Carnegie Mellon. Acquired by Hugging Face in April 2025, becoming the reference hardware for the LeRobot AI framework.
Founded 2016$5M raised
Humanoid Robots
1 Humanoid RobotIntroduction
Pollen Robotics is a Bordeaux-based French robotics company that created Reachy, one of the most widely adopted open-source humanoid robots in research, used across 20 countries. Founded in 2016 by former Inria researchers who created the Poppy robot. In April 2025, Pollen was acquired by Hugging Face, which plans to open-source both hardware and software.
Technology
Platform maturity, autonomy stack, and flagship-system specifications in one view.
Reachy 2 Specs
Published operating specifications for the lead system.
Battery Life8 hours
Payload Capacity3 kg
Speed3.6 km/h
Degrees of Freedom18
Investors
April 2025Acquisition AnnouncedCorporate
Hugging Face acquires Pollen RoboticsIn April 2025, Hugging Face acquired Pollen Robotics. The ~20 Pollen employees joined Hugging Face, and Reachy 2 became available through Hugging Face — the first time a major AI platform offered physical robot hardware alongside AI models.
No news articles mentioning Pollen Robotics yet.
Valuation History
Follow Pollen Robotics's valuation growth through its funding rounds.
Management Team
Company Story
Pollen Robotics is a Bordeaux-based French robotics company that created Reachy, one of the most widely adopted open-source humanoid robots in research, used across 20 countries. Founded in 2016 by former Inria researchers who created the Poppy robot. In April 2025, Pollen was acquired by Hugging Face, which plans to open-source both hardware and software.
- 2016
Pollen Robotics is founded in Bordeaux
Pollen Robotics was founded in 2016 in Bordeaux by Matthieu Lapeyre, Pierre Rouanet, and Alice Coucke from Inria's Flowers team. They had previously created Poppy, one of the first 3D-printed open-source humanoid robots.
BordeauxInriaPoppy - January 2020
Reachy becomes the flagship open humanoid platform
Reachy launched at CES 2020 and gained traction globally, with ~100 robots operating in 20 countries. Pollen won second place in the ANA Avatar XPRIZE, claiming $2 million in prize money.
ReachyAvatar XPRIZE - April 2023
Seed funding supports Reachy 2
The company operated capital-light for seven years, securing a seed round of 2.4 million euros in April 2023. The next-generation Reachy 2 represented a significant upgrade in capability.
SeedReachy 2 - April 2025
Hugging Face acquires Pollen Robotics
In April 2025, Hugging Face acquired Pollen Robotics. The ~20 Pollen employees joined Hugging Face, and Reachy 2 became available through Hugging Face, the first time a major AI platform offered physical robot hardware alongside AI models.
Hugging FaceAcquisition