Humanoid robots have captured the imagination of investors and the public, but putting them to work in real factories remains slow and expensive. A French startup co-founded by a leading robotics researcher has raised funding to tackle that bottleneck.
Bleu Robotics, based in Paris, has raised €5 million in a pre-seed funding round co-led by Contrarian Ventures and OVNI Capital, according to Vestbee on Thursday, October 29. Kvanted, WEPA Ventures, Motier Ventures and technology investor Charlie Songhurst also participated.
The company was co-founded by Benoît Berkoukchi, who serves as chief executive, Jean-Baptiste Mouret, the chief technology officer, and Serena Ivaldi.
A scientist co-founder
Ivaldi and Mouret are established figures in European robotics research, with backgrounds in robot learning and human-robot interaction. Ivaldi's work has focused on how robots can learn from and collaborate with humans, a field central to Bleu Robotics' approach.
Women remain significantly under-represented in robotics, both in research and among startup founders. Ivaldi's role as a co-founder of a venture-backed humanoid robotics company is a notable example in a field where female leadership is rare.
Teaching robots quickly
Bleu Robotics develops AI software that helps industrial humanoid robots learn factory tasks from "as few as ten operator demonstrations," according to Vestbee. The company uses an abductive learning model that infers the goals and constraints behind the demonstrations, rather than simply copying movements.
The approach aims to cut deployment time from months to "under one hour," according to the report. Traditional industrial robots must be carefully programmed by specialists for each task, which can take weeks or months and requires significant expertise. Reducing this to a short demonstration session by a factory operator could make robots far more practical for manufacturers.
The software is designed to work across different humanoid robot platforms, allowing it to be used with robots from various manufacturers rather than being tied to a single hardware design.
Industrial focus
Bleu Robotics plans to expand its research and robotics teams, deploy its first industrial robot-learning models and begin initial deployments with automotive and consumer goods manufacturers, according to Vestbee. It already works with two major industrial companies and plans to build partnerships with robot distributors.
Automotive and consumer goods factories are attractive targets because they involve many repetitive tasks that could be automated, but also frequent changes in products and processes that make traditional automation inflexible.
The humanoid race
Humanoid robots have attracted enormous investment in recent years. Companies such as Tesla, Figure AI, Agility Robotics, Apptronik, 1X and Unitree are developing humanoid robots, with some beginning pilot deployments in factories and warehouses. Chinese companies have been particularly active in producing humanoid robots at lower cost.
However, most humanoid robots remain in early stages of deployment, and making them useful for a wide range of tasks requires advances in software, particularly in how robots learn and adapt. This is where Bleu Robotics is focusing, betting that software will be the key differentiator as hardware becomes more widely available.
Europe's robotics ambitions
Europe has a strong tradition in industrial robotics, with companies such as ABB, KUKA and others, and leading research institutions. However, European startups have often struggled to raise as much capital as their American and Chinese counterparts. French and European investors are increasingly backing deep-tech and robotics startups to build a European presence in physical AI.
Contrarian Ventures is known as a climate tech investor, and its participation reflects the potential of automation to improve efficiency in manufacturing.
The opportunity for India
India's manufacturing ambitions, supported by production-linked incentive schemes in electronics, automobiles and other sectors, could create demand for flexible automation. Indian manufacturers face rising labour costs in some segments and the need to improve quality and productivity to compete globally. Robots that can be deployed quickly and adapted to new tasks could help.
Indian robotics startups are also developing automation solutions for warehouses, manufacturing and agriculture, and the global humanoid race is being watched closely in India's technology ecosystem.
How robots learn from humans
Teaching robots by demonstration, sometimes called imitation learning, has been studied for decades. Traditional approaches required large numbers of demonstrations and struggled when conditions changed slightly. Advances in machine learning have improved the ability of robots to generalise from fewer examples.
Bleu Robotics' abductive approach aims to go further by inferring why an operator performed an action in a particular way, rather than simply copying it. Understanding the goal and constraints behind a task could allow a robot to adapt when objects are in different positions or when conditions change, which is essential for real factory environments.
The economics of deployment
For manufacturers, the cost of deploying robots includes not just the hardware but also the time and expertise needed to program and integrate them. In many cases, integration costs exceed the cost of the robot itself. Reducing deployment time from months to under an hour, as Bleu Robotics aims to do, could dramatically change the economics of automation, making it viable for smaller production runs and more varied tasks.
This could be particularly valuable for small and medium-sized manufacturers, which often cannot afford lengthy automation projects.
Women in deep tech
Women make up a minority of researchers and founders in robotics and deep-tech fields globally. Initiatives to support women in science and engineering, including mentoring programmes, dedicated funds and research fellowships, aim to change this, but progress has been gradual. Founders such as Ivaldi serve as role models for young women considering careers in robotics and AI.
Europe's opportunity
European policymakers have identified robotics and AI as strategic technologies and have launched programmes to support research and commercialisation. Startups such as Bleu Robotics, which emerge from strong research institutions, represent the kind of deep-tech companies Europe hopes will compete globally.
What comes next
Bleu Robotics will use the funding to grow its team and begin industrial deployments. Its progress will be watched as a test of whether robot-learning software can make humanoid robots practical for everyday factory work. For Ivaldi and her co-founders, the round provides an early platform to translate years of research into a commercial product.
Manufacturers, meanwhile, are watching closely for evidence that humanoid robots can deliver reliable returns on investment, and early deployments by companies such as Bleu Robotics' industrial partners will provide important data points for the wider industry as it weighs the technology's promise against its costs.
