Sunday, April 20, 2025

Bodily AI startup RLWRLD brings in $15M


The RLWRLD crew is made up AI researchers, roboticists, product engineers, enterprise strategists, operators, and extra. | Supply: RLWRLD

RLWRLD Inc., a bodily AI startup constructing robotics basis fashions, this week mentioned it has raised $15 million in its seed spherical. The corporate mentioned its basis fashions study from real-world sensor knowledge, robotic methods, and industrial workflows, in contrast to different generative AI fashions that depend on textual content, code, and pictures.

“Silicon Valley is constructing brains for the Web. We’re constructing brains for machines,” said Jung-hee Ryu, the founder and CEO of RLWRLD.

Intel Corp. acquired Jung-hee Ryu’s earlier firm, Olaworks, in its first-ever acquisition of a Korean startup. RLWRLD’s founding crew consists of KAIST Chair Professor Jinwoo Shin, the previous chief expertise officer of Kurly, a Kakao engineering lead, and a former BCG companion.

The startup, which has workplaces in Seoul, South Korea, and Tokyo, mentioned its fashions allow robots to purpose and act autonomously in dynamic bodily environments. These embrace factories, warehouses, logistics hubs, and past.

RLWRLD builds platform on three pillars

RLWRLD mentioned its platform is constructed on three strategic pillars:

  1. Embodied mannequin structure optimized for real-world intelligence
  2. Industrial-scale knowledge pipelines from East Asia’s manufacturing ecosystem
  3. Plug-and-play infrastructure that integrates seamlessly with present robotics methods

“We’re not simply writing papers—we’re coaching fashions that remedy real-world issues on actual manufacturing flooring,” mentioned Jinwoo Shin, chief scientist at RLWRLD and KAIST chair professor.

The corporate can be constructing a multi-stakeholder innovation ecosystem by means of collaborations with the Korea Superior Institute of Science & Expertise (KAIST), Seoul Nationwide College, and POSTECH. As well as, RLWLRLD is working with robotics producers corresponding to WIRobotics, Rainbow Robotics, Wonik Robotics, and Robotis.

Funding to allow extra knowledge, integration

The spherical consists of investments from LG Electronics, SK Telecom, KDDI, ANA Holdings, Mitsui Chemical substances, and Shimadzu Company. It additionally included main AI-focused VCs from Japan and Korea, like Hashed, Mirae Asset, and International Mind.

“RLWRLD combines deep AI analysis with industrial execution at scale,” mentioned Simon Seojoon Kim, CEO of Hashed. “That’s what makes this a uncommon, high-conviction funding.”

RLWRLD mentioned the seed funding will speed up its subsequent part of development. It plans to develop its proprietary knowledge pipelines throughout its industrial companion websites and advance its robotics basis mannequin stack. The corporate additionally mentioned it hopes to deepen integration with robotics and sensor firms in Asia and North America.

Study in regards to the newest AI improvements on the Robotics Summit

Latest advances in synthetic intelligence shall be a sizzling matter at this yr’s Robotics Summit & Expo, which shall be on April 30 and Could 1 on the Boston Conference and Exhibition Middle. AI-focused talks on the present will embrace:

  • Welcome to the Period of Bodily Intelligence: Daniela Rus, the director of MIT CSAIL, shall be giving this keynote presentation. She’s going to discover the challenges of transformer-based basis AI fashions. Rus can even introduce various physics-based fashions and clarify how they obtain efficiency effectively.
  • Making Autonomous Bipedals Steady and Secure: Tackling the Security and Actual-world Interfacing Challenges of Bodily AI: Nikolai Ensslen, the CEO of Synapticon, will talk about approaches for the security of bipedal and AI-controlled robots and discover how hybrid management architectures—combining AI-driven intelligence with deterministic, safety-certified movement management—are the important thing to unlocking humanoid automation.
  • Danger is Completely different with AI: Methods for Resilient Robots: SK Gupta, the co-founder and chief scientist at GrayMatter Robotics, will current methods for making certain compliance with rising laws round AI. He’ll additionally clarify how you can forestall unintended penalties that would hurt each companies and the setting.
  • Advancing Robotic Studying with Pressure Sensing & Bodily Intelligence: On this discuss, Klajd Lika, the founder and CEO of Bota Methods, will discover efficient strategies for equipping robots with pressure sensing and capturing high-quality knowledge to advance robotic studying and adaptableness.
  • Generative AI’s Impression on Robotics: This panel will talk about the purposes of huge language fashions (LLMs) and textual content era purposes to robotics. It options Xavier Chi, the co-founder at mbodi AI; Ted Larson, the CEO of OLogic; Rajat Bhageria, the founder and CEO of Chef Robotics; Karthee Madasamy, the founder and managing companion at MFV Companions; and Eugene Demaitre, the editorial director of The Robotic Report.

The present can have greater than 50 academic periods in tracks on AI, design and growth, enabling applied sciences, healthcare, and logistics. The Engineering Theater on the present flooring can even function displays by trade consultants.

The Robotics Summit additionally gives quite a few networking alternatives, a Profession Truthful, a robotics growth problem, the RBR50 Robotics Innovation Awards Gala, and extra.

Registration is now open.

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