A startup barely a year old has persuaded investors to bet big on a different kind of factory robot.
Maven Robotics closed a $100 million Series A on Tuesday led by RoboStrategy, with LocalGlobe, Vine Ventures, XTX Ventures, Shorooq and Presight joining the round. The Santa Clara company, founded in 2024, is building what it describes as the first general-purpose robotics system designed specifically for industrial environments. Forge Global pegged the round at a $393.75 million post-money valuation, though Maven declined to confirm that figure.
The capital will fund production of 250 third-generation robots and kick off design work on a fourth-generation platform. Maven has set an aggressive timeline: 100,000 autonomous operating hours by the end of 2026, scaling to more than one million by late 2027. Whether the company can hit those targets remains an open question in an industry littered with ambitious projections.
For now, Maven's machines tackle two specific tasks: mixed-case palletizing and tote operations in warehouses and factories. These workflows alone represent roughly $80 billion in addressable market opportunity, according to the company's estimates. The wheeled robots sport dual robotic arms fitted with vacuum grippers. Each arm lifts up to 30 kilograms, and the machines can travel at speeds reaching 10 miles per hour, TechCrunch reported. Maven plans to expand into materials handling and assembly, though no timeline was provided.
Eight robots are currently deployed at customer sites, running 16-hour shifts with uptime Maven claims exceeds 99%. During a demonstration for TechCrunch, the company streamed live footage of two robots operating at an unnamed Fortune 250 consumer packaged goods company. That customer reportedly evaluated four vendors before selecting Maven, though the company offered no details about what tipped the decision in its favor.
The project emerged from an unusual pedigree. Co-founders Hamza and Khalid Derbas launched Maven after Hamza spent nine years in Apple's Special Projects Group. The CEO sidestepped questions about his work there, but the timing aligns with Apple's widely reported self-driving car effort. Maven's team of 11 to 50 employees collectively holds more than 200 years of experience at Apple, Tesla, Rivian, Cruise, Zoox, Ford and Archer Aviation, according to Crunchbase and company materials.
"A cartoon of a robot and a team of people," Hamza Derbas told TechCrunch when asked to describe Maven's 2024 starting point. "We're not in the race for models. We're in the race to solve industrial labor."
That framing resonated with backers who have watched robotics companies struggle to move from controlled demonstrations to messy factory floors. Jack Pearson, a principal at RoboStrategy, put it bluntly in the company's announcement: "There's a huge gap between a robot that demos well and one that survives three production shifts a day."
Shorooq and Presight announced their participation on September 28 through the Presight-Shorooq AI Fund and Shorooq's Bedaya Funds. "The first wave of AI reshaped how we work with information," said Bilal Baloch, a partner at Shorooq. "The next will reshape how the physical economy runs."
The funding comes as robotics draws renewed investor attention. Maven cited global venture capital investment in the sector exceeding $18.8 billion in early 2025, though specific sourcing for that figure was not provided. Meanwhile, Agility Robotics, which builds humanoid robots for warehouse work, announced plans in June to go public through a $2.5 billion SPAC merger with Churchill Capital Corp XI, according to SEC filings.
Maven is hiring for roles in autonomy, motion planning, machine learning infrastructure and field engineering, according to job postings on Greenhouse. Fenwick & West represented the company in the transaction.
