An NYC startup founded by former Meta engineers is generating buzz with its new compact humanoid robot that Boston Dynamics is already using to explore next-gen service applications.
Fauna Robotics says the new bipedal robot, named Sprout, is designed to operate safely around humans, including children, with its lightweight build and soft exterior materials. The startup, launched in 2024, is positioning Sprout as a developer-first alternative to Chinese humanoids like Unitree’s G1.
“Sprout is a human platform designed from first principles to operate around people,” Rob Cochran, Fauna’s CEO and co-founder, said in the announcement. “This isn’t a factory machine shrunk down; it is a new category of robot built for spaces where we live, work, and play.”
Standing 107 cm (3 feet 6 inches) and weighing 23 kg (50 lbs), Sprout boasts a reported 29 degrees of freedom (DoF). It features a padded foam-like exterior with no sharp edges or exposed pinch points. Its expressive face is intended to make it seem socially approachable. Its swappable battery lasts about 3.5 hours per charge.
According to Fauna, Sprout can walk, balance, perceive its surroundings, and navigate autonomously right out the box. It uses stereo cameras for perception and grippers for object manipulation. The startup says it ships with basic functionality so developers can focus on higher-level challenges like manipulation, task planning, human-robot interaction, and voice-based interfaces.
Though Fauna’s launch video shows Sprout interacting with a young child, the robot is primarily geared toward researchers and developers. It’s priced starting at $50,000 but the startup says it plans to lower the price as production scales. Fauna says it’s manufacturing the robot in the US.
Early adopters include Disney, NYU, UC San Diego, and Boston Dynamics, which is using a Sprout robot to test out future use applications for its Atlas humanoid robot. The Massachusetts robotics leader is preparing to deploy its world-famous humanoid at its parent company Hyundai’s factories. The South Korean automaker wants to scale to a production capacity of 30,000 units annually by 2030.
“We’re lucky to have one of these guys in our lab and it’s been great to develop next-generation service applications on,” Mario Bollini, who leads human-robot interaction and embodied AI at Boston Dynamics, said on X. “The Fauna Robotics team did a great job.”
Fauna’s team includes veterans from Meta and its former CTRL-Labs division, which developed human-machine interfaces to translate intent into real-time control and action. The startup has raised around $30 million in early-stage funding. Backers include Kleiner Perkins, Lux Capital, and Quiet Capital.