Japan · conglomerate

SoftBank Robotics

SoftBank Robotics is the SoftBank Group unit that launched Pepper in 2014 and later the Whiz cleaning robot and Servi delivery robot. It sold its European humanoid arm (Aldebaran) to United Robotics Group in 2022 and paused Pepper production in 2020.

Website

Type: conglomerate
Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan, Japan
Founded: 2012
Founders: n/a
Status: active
Employees (est.): n/d
Disclosed funding: n/d
Valuation: n/d
Listed: private
Website: softbankrobotics.com

Profile

What the record says.

SoftBank Robotics Group is the Tokyo robotics unit of SoftBank Group. It was built on Aldebaran Robotics, the Paris company founded in 2005 by Bruno Maisonnier that made the small NAO humanoid; SoftBank bought it in 2012 for about USD 100 million and renamed it SoftBank Robotics Europe in 2016. Masayoshi Son unveiled Pepper, a 1.2 m wheeled semi-humanoid with a chest tablet, in Tokyo on 5 June 2014; the first 1,000 units sold out in a minute in June 2015.

Pepper is the largest-volume humanoid ever shipped, with about 27,000 built, plus some 20,000 NAO. It was also a commercial failure: few customers renewed the USD 550 a month service contracts, and production was paused in June 2021 for weak demand. The Japanese parent moved on to reselling other makers' machines: the Whiz cleaner, the Servi delivery robot and, from September 2021, Keenon's Keenbot.

On 9 April 2022 SoftBank sold the European humanoid business to Germany's United Robotics Group, keeping a minority stake in URG; the unit went back to the Aldebaran name. URG stopped funding it in 2024, it filed for bankruptcy in February 2025 and was placed in receivership in June 2025 after about USD 29 million of operating losses. SoftBank Robotics today is a service-robot distributor with no humanoid of its own.

Robots

1 humanoid tracked.

SoftBank Robotics · Japan

Pepper

Discontinued

Pepper is a 120 cm wheeled humanoid designed by Aldebaran for SoftBank and launched in June 2014 as a social robot for shops, banks and homes. About 27,000 were built before production paused in 2020. It is the most widely deployed social humanoid to date.

Height120 cm

Weight28 kg

Pricen/a

Funding

Rounds and valuations.

All funding

Date	Round	Amount	Valuation	Lead	Note
8 Oct 2025	acquisition	$5.4B	n/d	SoftBank Group	SoftBank agreed to buy ABB's robotics division for USD 5.375 billion, framing it as a physical AI play. Industrial arms rather than humanoids, but the buyer is also a lead investor in Skild AI.

* reported, not confirmed by the company.

Deployments

At customer sites.

Robot	Customer	Site	Since	Status	Units
Pepper	HSBC	HSBC flagship branch, Fifth Avenue, New York, United States	Jun 2018	ended	n/d
Pepper	Nestle Japan	Nescafe coffee machine counters in Japanese electronics stores, Japan	Dec 2014	ended	n/d
Pepper	SoftBank Mobile	SoftBank shops across Japan, Japan	Jun 2014	ended	n/d
NAO	Universities, schools and therapy providers	Worldwide, France	2008	active	n/d

Timeline

Milestones.

8 Jun 2017
SoftBank agrees to buy Boston Dynamics from Google
SoftBank acquires Boston Dynamics and SCHAFT from Alphabet for an undisclosed sum. The deal closes in early 2018 and keeps Atlas development funded.
20 Jun 2015
Pepper goes on sale to consumers in Japan and sells out in a minute
SoftBank sells the first 1,000 consumer Peppers in Japan in about one minute. Monthly batches of 1,000 units continue to sell out through 2015.
5 Jun 2014
SoftBank and Aldebaran unveil Pepper
Masayoshi Son presents Pepper, a 120 cm wheeled humanoid designed to read emotions, priced at 198,000 yen. It becomes the most widely deployed service humanoid of the 2010s in shops, banks and hotels.

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