Rainbow Robotics
Rainbow Robotics is the KAIST HUBO spin-out that sells collaborative robots, quadrupeds and the RB-Y1 bimanual platform. Samsung Electronics became its largest shareholder in 2023 and made it a subsidiary in December 2024.
- Type
- startup
- Headquarters
- Daejeon, South Korea
- Founded
- 2011
- Founders
- Oh Jun-Ho
- Status
- active
- Employees (est.)
- n/d
- Disclosed funding
- n/d
- Valuation
- n/d
- Listed
- KOSDAQ: 277810
- Website
- rainbow-robotics.com
What the record says.
Rainbow Robotics was founded on 10 February 2011 in Daejeon by Oh Jun-ho, head of KAIST's Humanoid Robot Research Center, and his students, to commercialise the HUBO humanoids built at KAIST. The DRC-HUBO variant, with actuator cooling and a mode that kneels onto wheels, won the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge finals. The company trades on KOSDAQ and opened a US office in Schaumburg, Illinois, in 2023.
Humanoids have never been its revenue base. It sells RB series cobot arms, mobile robots, a quadruped and medical lasers, and since March 2024 the RB-Y1, a 1.4 m, 131 kg wheeled torso with two 7-axis arms carrying 3 kg each. It is sold as a research platform to users the company lists as including MIT, UC Berkeley and Georgia Tech. In June 2026 industry reports said Coupang was trialling it for sorting goods in a fulfilment centre, unconfirmed by either party.
Samsung Electronics bought 14.7 percent in 2023 for KRW 86.8 billion and in December 2024 exercised a call option worth KRW 267 billion to reach 35 percent, making Rainbow a subsidiary after regulatory approval in March 2025. Oh Jun-ho moved to head Samsung's Future Robotics Office, and in July 2026 Samsung launched a separate humanoid division, RX, under CEO TM Roh. Rainbow's own bipedal programme has been quiet since HUBO.
2 humanoids tracked.
Rainbow Robotics HUBO2
HUBO2 was the lighter, faster successor to the original HUBO and the first product of Rainbow Robotics, the KAIST spin-out founded in 2011. Several units went to US universities.
Rainbow Robotics RB-Y1
RB-Y1 is a wheeled two-armed humanoid platform from Rainbow Robotics with 7-DOF arms and a 6-DOF torso, aimed at embodied AI research.
Rounds and valuations.
| Date | Round | Amount | Valuation | Lead | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 Dec 2024 | strategic | $180M | n/d | Samsung Electronics | Samsung exercised a call option to raise its stake from 14.7 percent to 35 percent for about KRW 267 billion (roughly USD 180 million), making Rainbow Robotics a consolidated subsidiary and creating a Future Robotics Office under Samsung. |
| 3 Jan 2023 | strategic | $48M | n/d | Samsung Electronics | Samsung bought a 10.22 percent stake (later 14.83 percent after a further March 2023 purchase) for about KRW 59 billion, roughly USD 48 million. |
* reported, not confirmed by the company.
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.
Who is paying for humanoids: 69 funding rounds
Our funding record holds 69 entries. Take out the government funds, the acquisitions and the IPOs and $6.33 billion of disclosed private money remains. 37 percent of it went to companies with no robot on record.
Humanoid robot stocks: which of the 108 makers are actually listed
Twenty of the 108 makers in our record have a ticker. Four of them will sell you a humanoid. The rest build cars, chips, servers and washing machines, and the pure plays are all private.
Sources
- 01Rainbow RoboticsRainbow Robotics
- 02Rainbow RoboticsWikipedia
- 03
- 04Humanoid enters first commercial warehouse trial in South KoreaInteresting Engineering
- 05
- 06