After years of investors shunning hardware, Silicon Valley is getting physical.
Robotics has become one of the hottest bets in tech as investors look beyond software for the next wave of AI. Physical AI startups — companies building machines that can act in the real world — raised a record $16.3 billion across 492 deals in the first quarter of 2026, according to PitchBook data.
Falling hardware costs, labor shortages, and pressure to reshore manufacturing are fueling a new generation of companies building for the physical world.
For Business Insider’s inaugural list of the most promising robotics startups, we asked 14 investors across the robotics venture ecosystem — from early-stage specialists to partners at Bain Capital Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Bessemer Venture Partners — to identify the most promising robotics startups of 2026.
Each investor was asked to make two picks: one company from their portfolio and one in which they have no financial interest.
Their choices show how broad the robotics boom has become. Some startups on the list build general-purpose AI "brains" for robots, including FieldAI, Generalist, and Skild. Others develop humanoids for factories and homes, like Unitree, Walden, and Sunday Robotics. Another group applies robotics to specific jobs like metalworking, drug development, and strawberry picking. The list stretches from companies fresh out of the Silicon Valley startup accelerator Y Combinator to one preparing to go public.
Robotics is still a nascent field, and some of the technology is unproven. Researchers previously told Business Insider that humanoids, for instance, are a "fantasy product" with little near-term viability and that general-purpose home robots are still many years away.
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Here are the 25 robotics startups investors are watching in 2026. The list is alphabetical.
Total funding: $6.5 million, according to the company
What it does: San Francisco-based Avatar Robotics uses remotely operated robots to sort and pack products in warehouses. The company uses data from those shifts to train its robots to become more autonomous.
Why it's promising: Avatar's robots generate training data while doing paid work for customers. Human operators in Mexico and the Philippines control them with virtual reality headsets and handheld controllers, and Avatar uses those sessions to improve its robotics models.
CEO Colin Webb previously told Business Insider that this approach produces more useful data than paying people to collect it separately. His long-term goal is to build an "unlimited workforce for industrial labor" and have millions of robots deployed across factories, farms, and mines.
Nominated by: Ben Hemani, Bison Ventures (an investor)
Total funding: $160 million, according to the company
Source: Read the original article on www.businessinsider.com
