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Byte-Sized AI: GXO’s Humanoid Robotics Partner Bags $350M, Turkish Supplier Uses AI to Detect Defects
Meghan Hall
6 min read
Byte-Sized AI is a bi-weekly column that covers all things artificial intelligence—from startup funding, to newly inked partnerships, to just-launched, AI-powered capabilities from major retailers, software providers and supply chain players.
Humanoid robotics company snags $350 million
Apptronik, which sells humanoid robots, announced Feb. 13 that it had secured a $350 million Series A round, co-led by B Capital and Capital Factory. Google also participated in the round.
The robots are used in manufacturing, retail and third-party logistics organizations, as well as several other industries. Humanoid robots resemble humans in form and often are assigned to handle redundant tasks—particularly in warehouses. That can include lifting, transporting boxes, moving items off of pallets and more.
Prior to this Series A, the Austin-based startup had raised $28 million. It has partnerships with the likes of GXO Logistics and Google DeepMind. The DeepMind partnership helped pair tried-and-true AI systems with Apptronik’s hardware components.
According to the company, it plans to use the funds secured in the Series A round to improve the technology behind its humanoid model, which it calls Apollo. It expects the use cases in logistics and manufacturing to increase as a result. Apptronik also plans to scale production of its Apollo model to keep up with what it called “skyrocketing customer demand.”
Jeff Cardenas, CEO and co-founder of Apptronik, said the round marks an exciting turning point for the company.
“We’re creating the world’s most advanced and capable humanoid robots, designed to work alongside humans in meaningful and transformative ways,” Cardenas said in a statement. “By uniting cutting-edge AI with hardware engineered for meaningful interaction, we’re shaping a future where robots become true partners in driving progress. It’s inspiring to have investors who believe in this vision and are committed to helping us bring it to life.”
As startups continue to marry AI-powered reasoning systems with powerful robotics, investors have taken notice. New data from Pitchbook shows that, in 2024, the total investment dollars headed toward robotics had increased by 19 percent, as compared with 2023. The $6.1 robotics companies secured in 2024 was up 144 percent from 2019.
Gaia Dynamics launches with $1.5 million pre-seed
California’s Gaia Dynamics launched its AI-powered trade compliance platform last week, alongside a $1.5 million pre-seed round from AI Fund and Zenda VC.
The company uses AI to streamline companies’ compliance with consistently changing trade regulations, tariffs and more.
Gaia believes too much of the industry uses manual processes to keep a pulse on regulations and compliance. In order to change that, Gaia’s system uses AI to match product descriptions to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS), which drives down the rate of error and misclassification. According to its announcement, Gaia’s systems can finish that task in 30 seconds with 92 percent accuracy.
The system can also help shippers preempt issues in their supply chains or with global trade routes, ensuring that clients are able to fully comply as situations and geopolitical moves progress. That includes tariff rates; Gaia’s Tariff Discovery tool automates the process behind determining the active tariff rate to import goods into a client’s country of interest. It can also inform the client of the most ideal time to import in the case that, as has been going on in the U.S., high tariff threats loom.
Emil Stefanutti, founder and CEO of Gaia Dynamics, said tumult in the global trade arena makes now the perfect time to bring the company to center stage.
“Right now we’re facing heightened uncertainty around how global trade, the backbone of our interconnected world, will be impacted by the presidential transition in the U.S.,” Stefanutti said in a statement. “The coming months will indicate exactly what brokers, importers and exporters need to be prepared for. We’re here to help these businesses navigate the ever-changing world of regulations so they can reduce risk, save time, and focus on growth.”
MarketLeap gets $8 million for AI-enabled D2C e-commerce
Marketleap, a company founded to make listing items on global marketplaces simpler for direct-to-consumer brands, announced last week it had secured an $8 million Series A round, led by Smedvig Ventures. Expon Capital, Motier Ventures and a group of angel investors supported the round.
The founders, who previously worked at Amazon and Jumia, a marketplace that operates throughout Africa, noticed that, when they spoke with sellers, they complained about the difficulty of scaling their offerings on third-party marketplaces.
Thus, MarketLeap was born. The company uses AI to help sellers scale their marketplace offerings, by analyzing, listing and marketing a company’s products across a variety of different marketplaces, where they’ll be seen by consumers looking to buy. The founders contend that, while companies typically have high success sourcing and designing their own products, they often lack the expertise needed to effectively list and market those products to compete with other sellers.
Because so much of that process is automated by MarketLeap, sellers see a more hands-off experience; the company stores and handles all the items it lists via its third-party logistics partners, the same way Amazon might do through its Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) program.
Mekki Mouaddeb, chief operating officer and co-founder of MarketLeap, said the company enables a slew of brands to have a fighting chance on some of the world’s largest marketplaces, despite steep competition.
“The post-COVID era of e-commerce has seen the emergence of many models to help brands grow, but most either sideline the brand owner as the key product driver or offer SaaS tools that fail to address the core issue: time spent navigating marketplace complexities. Our model solves this by saving time while keeping the brand owner as the product manager,” he said in a statement.
MarketLeap plans to use the new funds to improve the technology underlying its solution and to hire more team members.
Turkish supplier leans on AI for quality control
Ekoten Tekstil, a Turkish supplier that is a subsidiary of Sun Tekstil, announced this month that it uses AI for quality control. In doing so, the company said, it also wastes less fabric; that’s because, when the supplier can identify defects or flaws before the final fabric is inspected, it can still make fixes or adjustments, rather than disposing of an entire bolt of fabric.
Sabri Ünlütürk, vice chairman of the board of Sun Tekstil and Ekoten Tekstil, said technology can enable stronger sustainability outcomes for suppliers.
“Our investment in AI-driven quality control has improved production accuracy while minimizing material waste,” Ünlütürk said in a statement. “We believe technology is the future of sustainable manufacturing, and this advancement reflects our commitment to operational excellence and environmental responsibility.”
While Ekoten did not disclose its partner in the announcement it put forth, it does partner with Serkon AI for some of its quality control efforts, according to the technology provider’s site. In doing so, it uses AI to ensure that each bolt in an order is exactly the hue it’s supposed to be—which also means each bolt matches.
The technology can also flag standard defects, like pulls or tears.
According to a testimonial from Ekoten on Serkon’s website, the supplier has upgraded the quality of its fabrics and doubled its production efficiency. Partnering with Serkon has also “significantly improved customer satisfaction,” the company noted.
