Minerva Humanoids exits stealth with VR-piloted bomb-disposal robot

Key points

• Roughly $10M in pre-seed funding, led by General Catalyst, with Hugging Face among the backers.
• Specialists wear VR headsets to see through Roger's eyes and handle fine manipulation, while an in-house AI manages balance.
• Paid pilots in energy and explosive ordnance disposal start this fall, following a NATO demo in Slovakia.
• Minerva says it went from idea to walking prototype in five months, with prototypes built in Germany.

Why it matters for marketers: Content teams covering robotics or defense tech get a dated milestone: paid pilots this fall, with remote human control as the central selling point.