Many investor-backed humanoid robotics companies face fundamental cost and reliability challenges that won’t be resolved anytime soon, a CB Insights report shows. According to investors, venture capital funds should especially now embrace a philosophy that puts revenue first.
December 16, 2025. Investorideas.com (www.investorideas.com Newswire) Recent major venture capital (VC) reports from KPMG and PitchBook confirm that AI continues to lead, accounting for more than half of all investments this year. Data from CB insights shows that investor attention within the AI market is rapidly shifting to industrial humanoid robotics. As a result, investors argue that the flood of AI capital is pushing robotics into speculative territory, with too many startups promising breakthroughs without commercial evidence.
Last quarter, industrial humanoid robotics secured seventeen deals – the most of any category. AI was still the top destination for investors, split into several categories such as coding AI agents and copilots (14 deals), end-to-end AI agents for software development (12), and others.
The sector’s rapid growth has already raised fears of a bubble among China’s leading economic planning industry, which said the humanoid robotics industry must “weigh speed against the risks of bubbles.” Bloomberg reports this.
Investor interest in humanoid robots is largely driven by AI, because AI gives humanoids a commercial potential that was not possible before.
According to Daiva Rakauskaitė, the partner and manager of Aneli Capitala company that manages a €35 million fund for early-stage Central and Eastern European startups, there are strong similarities between the current AI-driven investment boom and the dotcom bubble of the early 2000s, which left many startups in trouble. She expects an AI bubble to burst within two to three years.
“Many AI startups that cannot yet generate revenue will fail, but we are reaching consensus in the market on this. Although the same risks remain in humanoid robotics, many investors tend to overlook this,” says Rakauskaitė. “However, it is important to distinguish robotics from humanoid robotics; industrial and logistics robots already generate revenue and can deliver measurable results, while humanoids have not yet proven their commercial value.”
Currently, companies around the world are demonstrating prototypes of robots that perform actions from running to boxing, generating interest among users and investors. However, in the real world they have few practical commercial applications.
Similar challenges remain for industrial humanoid robotics. These companies face challenges in inference (the ability to make decisions in real time), agility (how well the robot can physically handle things), reliability and cost, limiting initial use cases to factories and warehouses with predictable job sets, CB Insights reports.
According to Rakauskaitė, especially now when investments are driven by hype, venture capital funds should not forget the fundamentals and prioritize the revenue-first philosophy, where real money is more important than growth at all costs.
“Investments in robotics and AI are crucial for the future development of humanity. But investors must remain disciplined and back companies that have realistic goals based on economics, not hype. From day one, startups should aim for early revenue streams through licensing and partnerships and have a clear monetization model in the near future. The same revenue-first philosophy can be applied to any field,” says Rakauskaitė.
Despite early signs of a bubble in humanoid robotics, she remains confident in the broader robotics sector, where cheaper hardware and rapid advances in AI are accelerating real-world implementation.
According to Rakauskaitė, robotics is a particularly promising field for the CEE startups. The region is close to Germany, the largest industrial robotics market in Europe, providing important strategic advances in scaling.
“The region also has a lot of hidden talent. That’s why we dedicated our new fund to this region, with the aim of supporting the talented founders with practical guidance and quick decision-making. Many hype-driven investors withdraw once the hype dies down. But to create true innovators, VCs must support them throughout their entire journey. That’s exactly what we’re going to do,” concludes Rakauskaitė.
About Aneli Capital
Aneli Capital is a fund management company that manages an early stage venture capital fund, Aneli Venture Capital Fund, based in Vilnius. The fund (size of €35 million), licensed by the Bank of Lithuania, was launched in November 2025 to grow startups in Lithuania, the Baltics, Poland and the wider CEE region. It supports startups in the fields of ICT, robotics, energy, space travel, photonics and smart manufacturing. Led by a team with more than thirty years of experience in venture investing and fund management, Aneli plays an active, hands-on role in helping founders strengthen their businesses, build sustainable growth and prepare for follow-on investments.
Media contact
Aivaras Vilutis
aivaras.v@sensuspr.com
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