Minerva Humanoids

Minerva Humanoids is a San Francisco-based humanoid robotics startup that emerged from stealth in 2026 to build humanoid robots for the world's most dangerous jobs, including offshore oil rigs, high-voltage power plants, explosive ordnance disposal and hazardous material response. Its first robot, Roger, is semi-autonomous: an operator controls it remotely through a VR headset to perform fine manipulation while Minerva's AI handles balance, fall recovery and navigation. Founded in 2026 by Sandor Felber, an alum of Tesla's Optimus program, and Maurice Rahme, a former Boston Dynamics technical lead on Stretch, the company builds its prototypes in both the United States and Germany and raised about $10 million in a Pre-Seed round.