NEURA Robotics, Europe’s perceived leader in the humanoid robotics race, is plotting an aggressive expansion into East Asia.
The well-funded German startup just launched a new facility in Hangzhou that will serve as its Asian hub. The so-called NEURA Hub will serve as training center for a diverse lineup of AI-powered robots, which the firm says will close “the global data gap” in robotics.
“Today, humanoid AI models have 120,000 times less training data than mature AI language models,” the company said in a LinkedIn post. “This severely limits their ability to perform complex real-life tasks.”
Though its founder, David Reger, is German, NEURA’s origins are in the mainland. The founder partnered with the Chinese industrial automation giant Han’s Laser Technology to establish the firm, originally called Han’s Robot, in 2017 after failing to secure funding in his home country.
He moved operations from Shenzhen to Menzigen in 2020 and rebranded the firm as NEURA, citing intellectual property concerns and his prediction that Deutschland would inevitably prioritize innovation in the age of embodied AI. Despite the move to Germany, Reger has said he remains on good terms with his former business partners in China.
Public records indicate the NEURA Robotics subsidiary was registered in late September 2025 in Hangzhou, which is home to Unitree and other notable AI and robotics firms like DeepSeek and DEEP Robotics. They list Reger as the legal representative with $52 million in registered capital.
The move is seen as a play for access to the Global South’s dense robotics supply chain, support for large-scale production, and enhanced sales and service operations to the Chinese market.
NEURA also recently announced a partnership with the Taiwanese automation stalwart Kenmec Mechanical to bring its human-like machines into Asia-Pacific factories. They’re developing a joint solution targeting the last mile in semiconductor logistics, automating tasks like packaging and testing.
NEURA confirmed its return to China after teasing a scaled-down version of its flagship humanoid, the 4NE1, to rival Unitree’s viral G1 robot.
Two pint-sized 4NE1 robots appeared in footage the startup recently shared showcasing its physical AI training center, dubbed NEURA Gym. The company is building out the training grounds in Germany and China where so-called cognitive robots can learn through hands-on experience instead of relying solely on simulation.
Data collected in the robot gym like tactile feedback, vision, motion trajectories, and real-world variables will be merged with synthetic data from the Neuraverse simulation platform. Once a robot masters a skill within the training center , that knowledge can be shared across the entire Neura ecosystem, which also includes co-bots and mobile bots.
In what looks like drone footage of the facility, a woman can be seen adjusting one of the compact robots in a training bay marked “4NE1 Mini.” The visual proportion suggests the humanoid’s height is about 1.2 meters (4 feet or so). NEURA hasn’t publicly shared info about the shorter robot, but its appearance in the video is likely intentional, as the company is extremely deliberate about how it presents itself to the world.
There’s a lot of catching up to do. As Unitree heads toward an IPO, the Chinese robotics leader shared its progress training its G1 humanoid, nicknamed KungFu Kind V6.0, to master martial arts. Launched in 2016 by hardware engineer Wang Xingxing, Unitree is approaching household-name status with its displays of robotic agility, balance control, and expressive motion that, at times, matches and even exceeds human capabilities.
With Unitree’s frequent virality comes a growing chorus pointing out that the robots haven’t done much that’s actually useful. Right now, humanoids like the G1 are in an awkward middle ground. For the most part, they’re either used as research tools for next-gen applications or very cool, but expensive, RC toys.
Unitree’s G1 has surged in popularity in the past year thanks to its relatively low starting price of $16,000. Since it introduced itself to the world in May 2024 wielding a baton, competitors from fellow Chinese startups like EngineAI, Agibot, and Noetix Robotics, as well as Western firms like K-Scale Labs, have hit the market.
Still, Unitree maintains a clear and dominant lead thanks to its first-mover advantage. The company is effectively becoming the DJI of humanoid and quadrupedal robots. Despite the growing ubiquity, there’s hunger for alternatives, driven by concerns about national security, data sovereignty, and geopolitical tensions.
Many Western companies, research labs, and government-backed organizations are reluctant to deploy Chinese hardware in sensitive environments. In Europe especially, compliance with GDPR and emerging AI regulations mean hardware and software must meet strict transparency and safety standards.
NEURA has made a string of high-profile moves throughout 2025 as it inches large-scale commercialization. It’s formed alliances with tech leaders like SAP, NVIDIA, and GFT Technologies son software integrations and is working with the German appliance manufacturer Vorwerk on bringing intelligent machines into homes.
NEURA is reportedly trying to raise more than $1 billion in funding after securing $128 million earlier in 2025. Reaching that fundraising goal would put the startup in the same league as Silicon Valley’s most watched humanoid robotics firm, Figure AI, which recently unveiled its highly anticipated third-gen humanoid.
Like its US counterpart, NEURA is pursuing a platform play, building out an ecosystem around its hardware for training, simulation, data, skill sharing, and integration with enterprise systems. Its stated goal is to deploy 5 million cognitive robots sby 2030, which is much more aggressive than Figure’s already lofty ambitions of shipping 100,000 autonomous humanoids within the next four years.
NEURA’s suite of robots spans industrial, service, and domestic use cases. It includes:
- MAiRA, a collaborative robot designed to work safely alongside human workers in manufacturing and logistics,
- Lara (Lightweight Agile Robotic Assistant), a cobot built for repetitive, structured tasks industrial settings,
- MAV, a multi-sensing autonomous vehicle designed for heavy payload transports of up to 1,500 kg in shared industrial environments,
- MiPA, a mobile assistant for healthcare, hospitality, and household applications, and
- 4NE1, its flagship humanoid whose third iteration was officially unveiled at Automatica 2025 in Munich.
According to NEURA, its industrial humanoid can operate autonomously and safely alongside humans in logistics and manufacturing environments thanks to its patented Omnisensor system that distinguishes people from objects and adapts its motions dynamically.
The 4NE1 stands 180 cm (5 feet 9 inches) and weighs 80 kg (176 lbs). It touts exceptional heavy-lifting capabilities and a dual-battery architecture for continuous operations. Its forearms are exchangeable to support task-specific end effectors.
Pricing has not been disclosed publicly but, in general, deploying full-sized humanoids is a significant investment, even for large enterprises. Beyond the upfront hardware costs, which is likely into the six figures, organizations must account for integrations, training, maintenance, and safety infrastructure.