General Catalyst led the round, with Long Journey Ventures and Credo Ventures as co-leads. Additional participants included MVP Ventures, Kaya, RunwayVC, Compound, Founders Embassy, Hugging Face, Codecademy, Walter Ventures and Tiny Ventures. The San Francisco-based company said it expects to begin its first paid pilots this fall. The Wall Street Journal separately reported the financing and identified oil and gas operations and public safety as the initial target markets.
Roger keeps a trained specialist in control rather than attempting fully autonomous operation. Minerva’s control software handles balance, fall recovery and navigation, while an operator uses a VR headset to see through the robot’s cameras and perform manipulation tasks remotely. The company is targeting offshore and onshore energy sites, explosive-ordnance disposal, hazardous-material response and airport security operations.
Minerva says it moved from initial design to a walking prototype in five months. Its first prototypes are manufactured and assembled in Germany, while most software and AI development takes place in the United States. The company plans production in both countries.
CEO Sandor Felber previously worked on humanoid research at MIT CSAIL and Tesla’s Optimus program. CTO Maurice Rahme spent six years at Boston Dynamics and was a technical lead on the commercially deployed Stretch warehouse robot.
Before the launch, Minerva demonstrated Roger at NATO’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal Centre of Excellence and conducted on-site testing associated with two unnamed major airports. It also established research partnerships with MBZUAI and the University of Waterloo. The company has not disclosed Roger’s payload, operating endurance, teleoperation latency, price, production target or named paid-pilot customers.
