Flexion Robotics: 10 Key Things You Must Know

Overview

Flexion Robotics is a cutting-edge robotics software company headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, that is pioneering the development of an advanced autonomy stack for humanoid robots. Founded in 2024, the company is gaining notable attention for its mission to build the "brain" of humanoid and human-capable robots, enabling these machines to perform complex tasks autonomously with minimal human intervention. Leveraging state-of-the-art reinforcement learning, large language models, and simulation-to-reality transfer, Flexion is positioned at the forefront of robotics innovation, focusing on artificial intelligence rather than hardware design. This article explores ten key facets of Flexion Robotics, from its origins and technological breakthroughs to its funding and future ambitions.

1. Founding and Leadership

Flexion Robotics was officially founded in late 2024 by a team of world-class roboticists and AI experts, many of whom have deep academic and industry roots at prestigious institutions such as ETH Zurich and companies like NVIDIA, Meta, Google, Tesla, and Amazon. The founding team includes CEO Nikita Rudin, a PhD in deep reinforcement learning from ETH Zurich and a former NVIDIA research scientist, CTO David Höller, perception lead Julian Nubert, hardware expert Fabian Tischhauser, and technical advisor Marco Hutter, a professor and renowned roboticist from ETH Zurich. Their combined expertise spans reinforcement learning, control systems, mechatronics, and robotic perception, enabling Flexion's state-of-the-art AI for humanoid robotics.

2. Mission and Vision

Flexion Robotics aims to revolutionize the robotics industry by creating a generalized, software-first intelligence layer for humanoid robots — effectively the "brain" that allows robots to autonomously learn, reason, and adapt across a wide variety of tasks and hardware. Unlike traditional approaches that focus heavily on mechanical innovation or narrow, scripted behaviors, Flexion seeks to build adaptive, general-purpose control systems using simulation, large-scale AI, and reinforcement learning. Their vision is for humanoid robots that can work alongside humans, performing useful, long-horizon tasks in dynamic, less-controlled real-world environments such as factories, disaster zones, logistics, and even planetary exploration.

3. Technology Stack and Approach

At the core of Flexion’s technology is an autonomy stack featuring multiple layers:

Command Layer: Leverages large language models for common-sense reasoning and task decomposition from natural language instructions.
Motion Layer: Uses vision-language-action models primarily trained in simulation to interpret and act in the physical world.
Control Layer: Employs transformer-based low-latency whole-body control with a modular library of reusable skills, enabling quick composition of complex behaviors.

This stack is trained through simulation-to-reality transfer, minimizing reliance on costly and time-consuming human demonstrations or teleoperation and enabling rapid generalization across different robot morphologies and environments.

4. Funding and Investors

In 2025, Flexion Robotics successfully raised a substantial $50 million Series A funding round, following an earlier seed round of approximately $7.35 million. Key investors include DST Global Partners, NVentures (NVIDIA’s venture capital arm), redalpine, Prosus Ventures, and Moonfire. The funding is earmarked for growing its Zurich-based R&D team, scaling computational resources and robot fleets, establishing a U.S. presence, and accelerating commercialization efforts with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). The investment reflects strong market confidence in Flexion’s potential to be a major force in autonomous humanoid robotics.

5. Human-Capable Robots and Application Areas

Flexion initially focuses on humanoid and human-capable robots, which represent some of the most complex and versatile robotic systems. This specialization is driven by the high value these robots have across diverse industries, including manufacturing, logistics, industrial automation, disaster response, and potentially space exploration. Thanks to its software’s morphology-agnostic design, Flexion’s intelligence layer can eventually apply to other robotic platforms like wheeled robots or multi-arm systems, broadening the impact of their autonomy solutions.

6. Simulation and Reinforcement Learning Leadership

Flexion’s ability to scale robot learning without relying on real-world data leverages its advanced simulation infrastructure combined with reinforcement learning (RL) techniques. Training in highly realistic simulated environments allows the company to develop robust control policies and behaviors transferable to physical robots. This sim-to-real approach accelerates development cycles and overcomes the logistical barriers of extensive teleoperation or manual data collection, a common bottleneck in robot autonomy research and deployment.

7. Team and Talent Ecosystem

With a workforce of around 30 employees, Flexion Robotics boasts a multidisciplinary and highly skilled team. Their talent pool comprises AI researchers, robot engineers, software developers, and product experts with backgrounds spanning academia and industry giants. The company actively recruits experts in AI engineering, robotics hardware integration, perception, motion generation, and control systems. This team-centric culture, backed by a flat organizational structure, fosters innovation and enables rapid progress in implementing their autonomy platform.

8. Partnerships and Industry Collaborations

Flexion Robotics collaborates closely with major original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to integrate their autonomy software into existing and emerging robotic platforms. While specific partners have not been publicly named, these collaborations aim to accelerate the real-world deployment of humanoid robots capable of performing useful autonomous tasks. Such partnerships are critical for commercial validation, scaling production, and addressing industry-specific challenges in automation.

9. Addressing Global Challenges and Market Needs

A key driver behind Flexion’s vision is the accelerating demand for robotic automation fueled by demographic changes, labor shortages, and increasing complexity of industrial tasks. With developed countries facing aging populations—where up to one-third of residents could be over 60 by 2050—the need to automate physically demanding, repetitive, and hazardous jobs is acute. Flexion’s adaptable humanoid autonomy software targets these economic imperatives, enabling robots to fill critical workforce gaps across multiple sectors efficiently.

10. Future Prospects and Industry Impact

Flexion Robotics is positioned to become a leader in the emerging era of AI-powered humanoid robotics. Its general-purpose autonomy stack aims to unlock a new category of robots that are not just impressive machines but practical collaborators capable of long-term adaptability. As compute power and AI techniques continue to advance, Flexion’s platform may enable robots to operate reliably outside controlled environments, transforming industries like manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, and exploration. The company’s trajectory suggests a future where humanoid robots become indispensable assistants augmenting human potential rather than mere tools constrained by scripted motions.

Conclusion

Flexion Robotics represents a bold new chapter in robotics, focusing on the vital software intelligence that will propel humanoid robots from experimental prototypes to scalable, autonomous workers. Founded by experts at the crossroads of AI and robotics, funded by leading investors, and driven by a sophisticated autonomy stack, Flexion is addressing some of the toughest challenges in robot learning and generalization. Their work signals a transformative shift where robots are envisioned not only as machines but as intelligent agents capable of reasoning, adapting, and collaborating in diverse human environments. As the company advances, it raises exciting possibilities about how humanoid robotics might reshape labor, industry, and even space exploration in the decades ahead.