Engineered Arts
Engineered Arts of Falmouth has made entertainment humanoids since 2004, including RoboThespian and the expressive Ameca. It raised a USD 10 million seed round in 2023 and expanded to the United States.
- Type
- startup
- Headquarters
- Falmouth, Cornwall, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Founded
- 2004
- Founders
- Will Jackson
- Status
- active
- Employees (est.)
- n/d
- Disclosed funding
- n/d
- Valuation
- n/d
- Listed
- private
- Website
- engineeredarts.com
What the record says.
Engineered Arts was founded in 2004 by Will Jackson in Falmouth, Cornwall, and for most of its life has been a small animatronics workshop rather than a robotics startup. Its first product, RoboThespian, is a life-size actor robot for museums and science centres; Mesmer added silicone-skinned, hyper-realistic figures; and Ameca, the newest, became the company's public face because of its facial expressions and viral videos. Ameca is a presentation and research platform: it does not walk and is not sold as a worker.
The company says it has deployed more than 250 robots in over 200 installations in more than 30 countries. Named customers include the Sphere in Las Vegas, GSK, the Computer History Museum and the National Robotarium in Edinburgh. Revenue comes from selling and renting these robots to venues, universities and brands.
In December 2024 Engineered Arts reincorporated as a US company with headquarters in Redwood City, California, keeping the Cornwall factory and a London office, and raised a USD 10 million Series A led by Helium-3 Ventures, bringing total funding to USD 16.2 million. The company said it planned about 20 hires in California over 18 months. Jackson remains CTO with Morgan Roe as COO. The robots are still aimed at entertainment and communication, not factory work.
2 humanoids tracked.
Ameca
Ameca is Engineered Arts' expressive humanoid, unveiled in December 2021 and shown at CES 2022, best known for realistic facial expressions and LLM-driven conversation. Gen 2 arrived in 2023 with a modular design. It is used for research, exhibitions and events rather than physical work.
RoboThespian
RoboThespian is Engineered Arts' life-size performing humanoid, produced since 2005 and installed in science centres and museums worldwide. It is a static-base robot for presentation, telepresence and entertainment rather than for walking or work.
At customer sites.
| Robot | Customer | Site | Since | Status | Units |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ameca | Museum of the Future | Museum of the Future, Dubai, United Arab Emirates | 2022 | active | n/d |
Milestones.
Engineered Arts reveals Ameca
Engineered Arts posts a video of Ameca, a grey skinned humanoid with highly expressive facial actuation, which goes viral before its CES 2022 debut. Ameca becomes the standard demonstration robot for conversational AI at trade shows and museums.
Europe's humanoids: who builds them and what you can order
31 of the 182 humanoids on record come from seven European countries. Three can be ordered, two have a price, and the dearest of those is $75,000 for a robot that does not walk.
Startups, automakers, universities: who builds humanoids
108 makers, nine kinds. Startups hold 37 of the 44 humanoids you can order. Automakers, universities, big tech, conglomerates and NASA hold 45 robots between them and sell none of them.
The uncanny valley, and why the newest humanoids have no face
Masahiro Mori warned in 1970 that a nearly human face repels. Of the 182 humanoids in our record, four describe one, and none of the four does physical work for a customer.
Sources
- 01Engineered ArtsEngineered Arts
- 02About usEngineered Arts
- 03
- 04