June 2026
RETAIL TECHNOLOGIES
THEKER raises $85M in Europe’s largest ever robotics Series A, led by CRV with backing from Samsung and LVMH
Founded by Carla Gómez Cano and Jiaqiang Ye Zhu, THEKER Builds AI-native generalist robots designed to operate in real production environments today.
THEKER, the Barcelona-based AI robotics company building AI-native generalist robots for industrial production environments, today announced a $85 million round, making it the largest robotics Series A round ever raised in Europe.
The round was led by CRV, with participation from Samsung, LVMH, Cathay Innovation, 20VC, Henkel Ventures, Korelya and Bright Pixel Capital alongside existing investors Inditex, Carles Reina (ElevenLabs), Itnig (Factorial Founders), Kfund, Kibo Ventures and Mission, among others.
The financing comes less than a year after THEKER closed the largest seed round in Spanish startup history, underscoring the extraordinary speed at which the company has moved from breakthrough technology to real-world industrial deployment.
The significance of the round goes well beyond the amount raised. It marks one of CRV’s first investments in Spain, Samsung’s first-ever investment in a Spanish company, and LVMH’s first investment in the Spanish startup ecosystem. The company is the only European startup to have secured backing simultaneously from global leaders in venture capital, consumer technology and luxury, highlighting the uniquely broad conviction behind its vision.
Founded by robotics and AI engineers Carla Gómez Cano and Jiaqiang Ye Zhu, THEKER is building a new category of industrial robotics: AI-native generalist robots capable of adapting in real time to changing environments, mixed SKUs, irregular shapes and operational variability without manual reprogramming.
Unlike traditional industrial robots that are rigid, task-specific and costly to reconfigure, THEKER’s systems deploy in days, continuously learn in production and operate autonomously in the complexity of real industrial environments.
Already deployed inside live production operations across Europe, THEKER’s robots are helping industrial operators increase throughput, reduce downtime and address persistent labor shortages across manufacturing, logistics and retail environments.
The company’s rapid traction reflects a broader shift happening across robotics and AI. While advances in foundational AI models have made the idea of generalist robotics possible, few companies globally have successfully bridged the gap between research demonstrations and robots capable of operating reliably in real-world production environments at scale. THEKER is emerging as one of the category leaders to do so.
“We didn’t build THEKER to run pilots. We built it to ship robots that work the day they arrive and continue improving every day after,” said Carla Gómez Cano, co-founder of THEKER. “This round accelerates a vision we’ve been building toward from day one: making intelligent, adaptable robotics practical for real industrial operations at global scale.”
“THEKER combines three qualities we look for in the companies we back: differentiated technology, proven execution capabilities, and the potential to lead a category on a global scale. The team has successfully translated advances in artificial intelligence and robotics into solutions that are already deployed in real industrial environments, demonstrating a level of maturity that is rare at this stage of growth. We are very excited to support the company through its next phase of expansion,” said Miguel Bagulho, Director at Bright Pixel Capital.”
“THEKER is solving one of the most important challenges in robotics: bringing general-purpose AI into real production environments where reliability, adaptability and scale actually matter,” said Reid Christian, general partner at CRV. “What Carla, Jiaqiang and the team have built is exceptionally rare, a deeply technical platform paired with real commercial deployment momentum. We believe THEKER has the potential to become one of the defining robotics companies of this generation.”
The company will use the new funding to accelerate deployments with tier-one industrial operators, deepen its proprietary AI and robotics stack, and expand its team across software, electronics, mechanical engineering and deployments. THEKER is doubling down on the proprietary stack that makes its robots generalist by default.
The investment also positions Barcelona as an increasingly important global hub for AI and robotics innovation.
About THEKER
THEKER is a next-generation robotics company founded in 2022 by engineers Jiaqiang Ye Zhu and Carla Gómez Cano. The company develops full-stack, AI-native generalist robots designed to adapt and operate in complex industrial environments without reprogramming. THEKER robots are already deployed in live production environments across Europe. Learn more at theker.ai.
