Persona AI
Houston startup building rugged industrial humanoids for shipyards and heavy industry
Startup · Prototype · Humanoid startup · Houston, Texas, United States · Founded 2023 · persona.ai
Unverified Humanoid status is inferred (no announced customer deployments found). CEO from general knowledge.
Profile
Founded by former NASA robotics engineers, Persona AI targets dangerous industrial work such as shipbuilding with a ruggedized humanoid. A Sep 2026 Form D shows $65.4M sold toward a $142M offering. Japan's Daiwa House Group Growth Fund invested in Oct 2026.
Leadership
- Nicolaus Radford, Co-founder & CEO
Flagship robots
- Persona industrial humanoid Humanoid
Aimed at welding/heavy-industry tasks; specs not yet public
Funding and valuation
Latest round
$65.4M
Equity offering (Form D, ongoing) · Sep 14, 2026
$65.36M sold of a planned $141.96M offering, per Form D
Competitors
Companies with overlapping products. Direct = same customers and same job; Adjacent = overlapping technology or market, different focus.
Agility Robotics
Adjacent competitorBoth are building humanoids for industrial work: Agility Robotics sells the Digit biped for tote moving in logistics and manufacturing, while Persona AI is building rugged humanoids for shipyards and heavy industry.
Foundation (Foundation Future Industries)
Adjacent competitorBoth pitch humanoids for rugged industrial and defense-adjacent work: Foundation builds the Phantom humanoid for defense and industrial work, while Persona AI is building rugged humanoids for shipyards and heavy industry.
Recent news
- — Daiwa House Group Growth Fund invests (amount undisclosed) Dealroom
- — Form D shows $65.4M raised toward a $142M offering Runtime Wire
Sources
- Form D: Persona AI Inc. (SEC via edgar.tools) (Sep 14, 2026)
- Persona AI reports $65.4M sold toward a planned $142M offering (Runtime Wire) (Sep 16, 2026)
- Daiwa House Group Growth Fund backs Texas humanoid robot maker Persona AI (Dealroom) (Oct 2, 2026)
Confidence: medium.