UK robotics companies have raised almost £190m so far this year, according to figures from UKTN, with two large rounds accounting for most of the total.
Humanoid raised $152m, about £112m, in a Series A round, and Automata pulled in $45m, roughly £33m, in a Series C. Together the two deals make up 76% of all UK robotics funding in 2026 to date. Last year’s numbers were dominated by CMR Surgical’s $131m Series D, a similar concentration of money in a small number of companies.
The funding is not evenly spread across the country. Cambridge leads the UK for robotics investment, with $1.3bn raised across 13 rounds and 12 companies. That total, which includes money raised in earlier years, is higher than London and Bristol combined. London has seen $582m across 75 rounds and 103 companies, a much larger number of smaller deals. The data shows the deepest robotics cluster in the country is a university city with a long record of turning research into companies, rather than the capital.
Robotics is a hardware business, and hardware needs labs, engineers and patient capital. Cambridge has all three, and the city’s cluster has been building for decades. The funding figures suggest that concentration is now paying off.
The exit market is thinner than the funding market. The UK recorded one robotics acquisition in 2026 so far, REEF’s purchase of KAIKAKU, compared with one in 2025 and two in 2024. Across the sector there have been 15 acquisitions in total, with companies typically raising about $4.4m before an exit and waiting just over four years from first funding. The sector is still young, and the deal flow suggests the market is working out what these companies are worth.
Whether the momentum holds depends on interest rates, investor appetite and the ability of UK firms to scale production rather than just prototype. The past three months have brought a flurry of activity, from funding rounds to partnerships, which points to growing confidence.
None of this is guaranteed to last. But the funding data shows UK robotics is no longer a collection of lab projects, and that the sector has a clear centre of gravity in Cambridge. UKTN reports Cambridge’s total of $1.3bn exceeds London and Bristol combined.