The verified answer
As of Oct 2026, DEPLOY verifies Persona AI: 1 model, $27.0M raised. 1 source back the record.
CategoryHumanoids
Overview
Houston-based company building purpose-built industrial Humanoid robots for shipyards, manufacturing, and defense. Founded by Nic Radford, Persona AI raised 7M in an oversubscribed pre-seed round to develop rugged humanoids for heavy industry applications, addressing the skilled labor crisis in shipbuilding and fabrication.
Verified record
- Verified deployments
- None on file
- Active incidents
- None on file
Valuation of record
DEPLOY VERIFIEDPriced roundSeed post-money
Key facts
Robot
Focus
HQ
Founded
Founder
Pre-seed funding
Products
Data & sources
Web sources
1
1 source backing this record.View all →
Models (1)
View all models →Partnerships
Every company Persona AI has built with, alongside the ones only announced in a press release.
Most-frequent partners
- 1HD Hyundai1× joint
- 2Hyundai1× joint
Most recent
- Persona AI x HD Hyundai Shipyards2026-03-11with HD Hyundaijust announced
- with Hyundaijust announced
Persona AI on the deployment map
View the global mapPersona AI has no verified deployments on the DEPLOY registry yet. Explore the deployment map by place and type.
No verified deployments for Persona AI on the DEPLOY record yet. Track Persona AI to know the moment the first one is verified.
Relationships
Current leadership (1)
- Nic Radford Founder & CEOreported, not verified
Founders (1)
- Nic Radfordcofounder
Former / Previously (1)
- Jacob Zietek Founding team member, robot manipulationsecondary-verified
Safety record
No incidents on record for Persona AI.
Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.
Full safety record: incidents, sourcing, and exposure data →
Recent coverage
Persona AI in third-party press
Peers
101 peers across 1 segment. Every Persona AI competitor derived from shared form-factor and application-domain edges.
humanoid(101)
68 companies in this segment · competitive (HHI 574.5255335898561) · leader Figure AI at 1207%
- Astribotdirect competitor(inferred)strong
- Holiday Roboticsdirect competitor(inferred)strong
- Humanoiddirect competitor(inferred)strong
- Humanoiddirect competitor(inferred)strong
- RoboForcedirect competitor(inferred)strong
- THEKER Roboticsdirect competitor(inferred)strong
Financial state
- Total funding
- $27.0M
- Reporting basis
- private_reported
- Lifecycle stage
- early
- Counterparty risk class
- elevated
Each numeric field carries its own basis marker. Aggregators report a number; this surface preserves the source class so verification depth travels with the value.
Partnerships
2 total · 2 just announced
Every company Persona AI has built with, alongside the ones only announced in a press release.
Most recent
- Persona AI x HD Hyundai Shipyards2026-03-11with HD Hyundaijust announced
- with Hyundaijust announced
Most-frequent partners
- 1HD Hyundai1× joint
- 2Hyundai1× joint
All 2 partnerships
open in the atlas →- development2026-01-01just announced
- Persona AI x HD Hyundai ShipyardswithHD Hyundaideployment2026-03-11announcedjust announced
Funding rounds (1)
- Seed2026-03-11
$27M(reported) · $108M post
Timeline
Every recorded move in Persona AI’s history, most recent first: funding rounds, partnerships, acquisitions, supply-chain starts, key hires, and press.
Funding roundSeed funding round
2026-03-11Seed raising $27000000
PartnershipPersona AI x HD Hyundai Shipyards
2026-03-11Persona AI signed agreement with HD Hyundai to deploy humanoid robots into shipyards. Purpose-built for welding, fabrication, and heavy industry.
PartnershipPersona AI x Hyundai shipyard welding humanoid
2026-01-01Persona AI partnered with Hyundai to develop welding-capable humanoid robots for shipyard and heavy industry operations. Working prototype targeting end of 2026. Joint venture with industrial partners for shipyard-specific humanoid.
Recent activity
Every change to this record is dated, sourced, and independently verified where marked.
- Record createdJun 27, 2026
Added to the verified registry
Sources (1)
- verification source · https://persona.ai/
Common questions
What is Persona AI?
What does Persona AI make?
Who competes with Persona AI?
Who is the CEO of Persona AI?
Where is Persona AI headquartered?
How much funding has Persona AI raised?
Where does Persona AI operate robots?
Is Persona AI a top robotics company?
When was Persona AI founded?
Is Persona AI safe?
Methodology: Verified · 1 source (no primary) · last reviewed 2026-08-21
Verification posture
Verified
Low confidence
Review state
Stable
Last reviewed 2026-08-21
Sources by quality tier
- 1
- unclassified
- Unclassified source
The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.
Methodology surface for Persona AI.Peer companies
- Unitree Robotics10 models
- DLR Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics6 models
- Dobot6 models
- AgiBot5 models
- AheadForm5 models
- Boston Dynamics5 models
In the press
Recent coverage mentioning Persona AI from third-party publications. Automatically surfaced; not part of the verified registry record.
Is Shipyard Welding the Right First Job for Humanoid Robots?
Humanoids desperately need to stop making YouTube videos and get a job already, and Persona AI is one of the few humanoid companies that seems to be entirely focused on making…
Experts to discuss the state of humanoid robots at RoboBusiness
The RoboBusiness panel will include insights on humanoid robots from Agility, Apptronik, Persona AI, and PSYONIC experts. The post Experts to discuss the state of humanoid robots…
Persona AI raises 7M for shipyard humanoid robots
Persona AI raised 7M. Building purpose-built humanoid robots for shipyards. Signed agreement with HD Hyundai for shipyard deployment.
Nic Radford and Persona AI: Redefining Industrial Robotics
Profile of Persona AI founder Nic Radford and the company's 7M pre-seed round for industrial humanoid robots.
Machine-readable surfaces
- Markdown mirror: /companies/persona-ai.md
- RSS feed: /companies/persona-ai/feed.xml
- JSON-LD: embedded in this page’s head
- REST API: /v1/companies/6978f03c-ee54-4a4c-83fe-7919991c737a
- Revision history: /companies/persona-ai/history
- Data documentation: /data
- Query this programmatically: Deploy MCP
Peer companies
- Unitree Robotics10 models
- DLR Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics6 models
- Dobot6 models
- AgiBot5 models
- AheadForm5 models
- Boston Dynamics5 models
Video
While the world rests, Persona AI’s humanoid robots are already on the move—building, welding, assembling, and handling jobs once done by humans. 😱🔥 These AI-
Persona AI is building humanoid robots for welding in partnership with Hyundai. Berkeley researchers unveil VideoMimic to teach robots context aware skills usin
#robot #robotics #actuators #mechanical #humanoid
A great partnership, signed in #Houston at the Ion Houston. Persona AI Inc and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries have agreed to work together toward humanoid robots f
#robot #robotics
We made it to the big screen! 📺 Our latest collaboration with Persona AI was featured in Jensen Huang’s GTC 2026 Keynote Tech Montage. This isn't just a prett
What happens when you bring a humanoid robot out of the lab? While Houston tuned in to the World Cup, the Persona AI engineering team walked our robot around IO
We’re honored that HD Hyundai has invited our CEO Nicolaus Radford to speak at the Future Tech Forum during the APEC CEO Summit. When: October 27, 2025 at 11:2
Heat Index
Category contender79/100
A composite of competitive footprint, funding, press velocity, active partnerships, and supply-chain edges. Different from the Intelligence score below (which is per-form-factor productization). Non-robotics companies cap at 25.
Reality vs attention
Persona AI draws attention at the 52nd percentile but verifies reality at the insufficient-data level among humanoids.
6-month trend
Analysis
Funded with institutional backing on record. Limited public visibility and press coverage relative to peers.
Dimension breakdown
Verified signal
Attention (reach, not merit)
DEPLOY Intelligence scores are computed from verified registry data: confirmed deployments, disclosed funding rounds, regulatory filings, active job listings, video viewership, and press coverage. Confidence ratings reflect data availability. Scores update nightly.
DEPLOY Indices — verified vs claimed
Last computed: Oct 2, 2026