The problem
Factories can’t staff repetitive, dangerous work, and research labs wanting to push humanoids forward had to build robots from scratch. Humanoid robotics stayed a demo discipline: brilliant machines with no path into manufacturing, logistics, or other developers’ hands.
How it works
Rainbow Robotics, spun out of KAIST’s Humanoid Robot Research Center in 2011 (the lab behind Hubo, Korea’s first two-legged walking robot), productized the research: collaborative robots, industrial arms, quadrupeds, dual-arm manipulators, and AMRs with grid-free SLAM navigation. Its RB-Y1 semi-humanoid pairs a torso and two 7-DoF arms with a wheeled base, Mecanum omnidirectional wheels for 360-degree movement in tight spaces, and an integrated SDK with open APIs and modular IMU, gripper, and lidar options. Samsung layers its AI and software onto the hardware to develop intelligent advanced humanoids, deploying Rainbow’s cobots and industrial robots for manufacturing and logistics automation first.
Pain points
Factory labor shortages and safety, automation backlogs, and robotics researchers stuck rebuilding hardware instead of advancing behavior and intelligence.
Business model
Hardware sales — cobots, AMRs, and RB-Y1 platforms and development kits to universities and industrial customers (pre-orders include MIT, UC Berkeley, UW, Georgia Tech), supported by a Chicago-based US subsidiary — plus the Samsung channel: global sales reach, factory-automation demand, and humanoid R&D funding through Samsung’s CEO-level Future Robotics Office headed by Rainbow founding member Oh Jun-ho.
Challenges
A humanoid race against Tesla, Boston Dynamics, and Figure AI; converting RB-Y1 research interest into industrial deployments; and delivering at startup speed inside a conglomerate subsidiary structure.
Funding
- Raised: Samsung invested KRW 86.8B (~$59M) for a 14.7% stake in 2023, then exercised a call option in December 2024 to reach 35% for
KRW 267B ($181M), becoming largest shareholder (SiliconANGLE, The Robot Report). - Valuation: MISSING.
Latest — May 2025
Rainbow Robotics unveiled Mecanum omnidirectional wheels and an integrated SDK for the RB-Y1 at ICRA 2025, aiming to establish itself as a technology leader in global humanoid robotics — its first major product move as a Samsung consolidated subsidiary, with RB-Y1 already in use at leading universities and a Chicago subsidiary driving US expansion.