Nearly nine in every ten euros that went into European robotics last quarter went to defence. Look at rounds below $100m, though, and defence falls to about a third, with industrial robots and AI models taking most of the rest. The headline describes three cheques. The market underneath is the one we invest in.
In this issue:
Field Notes Q3 2026: our new quarterly on robotics capital, and why the defence number misleads
In the field — Levtek switches on autonomy, Willo works with Chiba University, Distance signs with Morpho, Spogen partners with Sensible 4, and Scenario open-sources its game toolkit
Radar — Hitachi picks a Munich robotics stack, Eni tests an Italian humanoid, and Europe's robot fleet passes 700,000
One thing to watch — a Finnish counter-drone company is now trading in Helsinki
Find us at Slush — investor 1:1s, Minus One, a robotics lunch and Pathways. Plus Amsterdam and Berlin in October
Hiring — 41 open roles across ten portfolio companies
Introducing Field Notes
Robotics + Physical AI
$18.4bn went into robotics worldwide last quarter, across more than 400 rounds. We counted them, and wrote down what we think they mean.
This issue comes with something new. Field Notes is our quarterly read on robotics and physical-AI capital. It covers the European rounds we could verify, the global deals above $50m, the exits, and one position we’re willing to be wrong about. Issue one runs from July to September. Three findings stood out.
Europe minted unicorns early. Seven European robotics companies raised at $1bn or more. Three crossed the line for the first time: Humanoid at $1.35bn, with Kraken Technology Group and Gravis Robotics at $1bn each. Humanoid and Gravis did it on a Series A.
The field is widening. Disclosed rounds rose 45% from July to September, from 115 to 167, while total dollars fell from $7.84bn to $4.86bn. There were fewer giant cheques and many more companies getting backed. For early-stage investors, that is close to ideal.
The buyers want the brain. AMD agreed to pay $8.2bn for World Labs. Qualcomm bought PickNik, and Cognex agreed to buy RealSense for about $500m, explicitly to move into robot perception. Every acquirer was American, Japanese or Chinese. None was European.
Our take: China went first on humanoids, and it isn’t close. Europe’s edge is that the industrial customers are already here. The European companies growing fastest last quarter each picked one job: Gravis retrofits construction machinery, Monumental lays bricks, CloudNC programs metal-cutting machines. A company that owns one industrial workflow end to end, and the data that comes with it, beats one entering a form-factor race that started somewhere else.
In the Field
Five companies from the portfolio, from robots on warehouse floors to the tools that build games.
Levtek: Ride-on robots for logistics
Switched on autonomous features in early October as another Levkart went out to a customer. Levtek's robots already work at Voi's warehouse in Poznań and at PostNord Danmark terminals, and in September it opened its new Malmö facility to show an agentic workflow running on real robot hardware. (Levtek)
Why it matters: The autonomy ships to robots doing paid work, so every new feature is tested on the job from day one.
Willo: Wireless power for machines
Signed a joint research agreement with Chiba University in Japan, whose research group works on keeping wireless power stable while devices, and people, move around a room. Willo's approach lets devices draw power at any position and orientation inside an enclosed space, with no charging pad to line up with. (Willo)
Why it matters: Japan makes a large share of the world's industrial robots. Cables are the part of a robot fleet nobody puts in the demo.
Distance Technologies: Mixed-reality displays for vehicles, cockpits and defence
Signed an MOU in September with Tokyo-listed Morpho, which has built imaging AI since 2004. Morpho brings distance estimation and a toolkit that rebuilds 3D environments from ordinary cameras. Distance brings its lightfield head-up display and Acuity OS. Together they are developing driver-assistance and defence operator interfaces that put information straight into the user's field of view. (Distance)
Why it matters: An uncrewed vehicle is only as useful as what its operator can see. Morpho's cameras map the scene, and Distance puts the result in the operator's line of sight.
Spogen: Machinery knowledge for heavy industry
Partnered with Sensible 4, which retrofits autonomy onto heavy vehicles customers already own. Spogen makes the installation, commissioning and operating knowledge from each deployment structured and reusable, so the next one starts further ahead. (Spogen)
Why it matters: Autonomy is being built around machines Finland makes today. Machine one is a demo. Machine one thousand is a business.
Scenario: Generative AI for game production
Launched GameDev OS on 25 September: free, open-source skills that let coding agents such as Claude Code and Cursor produce game art, 3D models, audio and trailers through Scenario's platform. The repository is close to 1,000 GitHub stars, with more than 100 forks. (GitHub)
Why it matters: The skills cost nothing, and every asset they make is generated on Scenario. When a developer asks an agent for game art, the agent knows where to go.
Radar
Beyond our portfolio, what caught our attention this month.
A Japanese industrial group will sell a Munich robotics stack to factories worldwide. Hitachi signed a co-creation partnership with Agile Robots, combining its physical-AI software and edge AI chips with Agile's robots, including the Agile ONE humanoid. Hitachi plans to offer the results globally through HMAX Industry. (Hitachi)
Italy's humanoids are getting industrial test sites. Eni, already an investor through Eni Next, signed an MoU with Italy's Generative Bionics to test its GENE.01 humanoid for inspection, teleoperation and remote assistance. Eni may also provide high-performance computing to train its models. (Eni)
World models are learning to drive bodies. Odyssey released Odyssey-3 in research preview, which it says can learn control for robot arms, humanoids, drones and cars from one model. (Odyssey)
Europe's next robotics gains are in software for the robots it already has. The EU's installed base passed 700,000 industrial robots for the first time (712,000), while new EU installations fell 11% to 60,500. China installed 59% of the world's new robots. (IFR)
The first humanoid buyers are buying training data. Labour comes later. IFR's first humanoid count puts 2025 sales at around 7,000 units, many bought to generate data, with carmaker pilots typically running fewer than ten. (Euronews)
Robots have to hear as well as see, and a Reykjavík company is building the data for it. Treble, which simulates acoustics and generates synthetic audio for physical AI, raised an $18M Series A-2 led by Paladin, with the EIC Fund participating. (GlobeNewswire)
Securing physical AI is now a billion-dollar European category. Rome's Exein raised $270M at a $1.7B valuation. Headline led, with the EIB Group and KfW Capital in. Exein builds security into the firmware of robots, drones and industrial machines. (tech.eu)
Display glasses are now on sale in Europe. Ray-Ban Meta Display is on sale in France, Italy and Germany from 13 October, after UK orders opened in September. European spatial software builders now have an installed base on their doorstep. (Meta)
One Thing to Watch
A Finnish counter-drone company is now trading in Helsinki.
Sensofusion priced its IPO at €16.41 a share, raising about €259 million in new shares at a pre-money value of up to €1.3 billion. The offer was oversubscribed several times. Shares started trading on the Nasdaq Helsinki prelist on 9 October, opened above the offer price, and move to the main list on 13 October. In the year to June it booked €49.4 million of revenue and €30.1 million of operating profit. (Sensofusion)
Every Nordic hardtech founder gets asked who buys the company in the end. For a decade, the answer was usually American. A listing at home is a different answer. If it keeps trading well, founders here gain an exit route that doesn't require leaving.
Hiring across the portfolio
41 open roles across ten of our companies. A selection:
Levtek — Mechanical Engineer, Malmö →
Willo takes open applications through its site.
Find us at Slush
Slush runs 18–19 November in Helsinki. Our week starts two days earlier.
Physical AI Investor 1:1s, Helsinki, Monday 16 November. The day before Slush Founders Day, at Allas Pool. Ten early-stage European robotics and physical-AI founders, ten investors who write cheques in the category, eight ten-minute meetings each and dinner afterwards. Founders apply by 19 October: minusone.fov.ventures/apply. Sourced with Specter.
Minus One, the same evening. Our GP and LP reception, fourth year running, with Google returning as partner. Invite only.
Reforge Europe: Robotics & Physical AI Lunch, Tuesday 17 November. We're co-hosting a lunch for robotics and physical-AI founders and investors, 11:30–13:30 in Helsinki. Request a seat.
Pathways × Alma Family Circle at Slush, Wednesday 18 November, 15:00–19:00. Our Pathways programme with Alma, at Sipuli during Slush. For LPs, and for emerging LPs planning to invest in venture in the next six months. Application only: apply here.
Where to find us in October
Sointu is at the VC Platform European Summit in Amsterdam, 15–16 October.
Dave is at NVIDIA GTC Berlin, 20–22 October.
In town for either? Hit reply and we'll find a coffee.
Your turn: We’re building the Q4 edition now, and roughly a third of rounds never report an amount. Raised a European robotics round we missed, especially below $25m? Hit reply and it goes in.
See what others miss.
— The FOV Team
Viewpoints is brought to you by FOV Ventures, the European fund investing in the next era of computing: robotics, physical AI, spatial.
