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Meet Feather, the startup building the ‘Android of robotics’ for developers

1 d ago

Feather Robotics, a humanoid startup developing a modular robot platform, has raised $7.6 million in pre-seed funding from Gradient Ventures and surpassed $1 million in revenue, positioning itself as the “Android of robotics” for developers seeking deployable hardware today. Founded in 2024 by Hoa Mai—whose previous humanoid startup was sold to 1X—and former Tesla Model 3 engineer Parsa Bakhtiari, Feather offers a customizable robotic system with adjustable arm lengths and software that runs models from Nvidia, Skild, or Physical Intelligence. Unlike Tesla or Figure, which aim for general-purpose machines with a foundational “brain,” Feather provides a toolkit for developers to tackle real-world tasks now. The robot costs $30,000—roughly half the price of Unitree’s H2 Edu—and is already working as a cook in restaurants and cleaning science labs. Feather’s modular approach fills a gap in the U.S. market, where foreign-made humanoid models face import restrictions. According to Gradient general partner Darian Shirazi, Feather is the only U.S. startup building a modular humanoid platform, with no direct domestic competitors. The startup has spent only a fraction of its pre-seed funding and is preparing for a major product launch after resolving field-testing issues. Co-founder Mai believes the value in robotics will come from an ecosystem built around the hardware. “If you think about how many physical AI application companies will probably exist in five years, we expect it to be in the thousands,” he said. Feather aims to be the platform powering them all.