Humanoid robotics startup Sunday hits $1.15B valuation to develop home robots

Robotics startup Sunday has announced a fresh funding round that has pushed the company to unicorn status, giving it a valuation of more than $1 billion.

The company said on Thursday that it raised $165 million in a Series B round at a $1.15 billion valuation. The financing was led by Coatue Management, with participation from other investors including Tiger Global, Benchmark, and Bain Capital Ventures.

Sunday emerged from stealth late last year and has already attracted strong early interest, with Bloomberg reporting that the company has 1,000 people on its waitlist.

Founded by Tony Zhao and Cheng Chi, Sunday is developing a household humanoid robot called Memo, designed to assist with everyday tasks such as doing laundry and clearing the table.

Researchers and companies have spent decades trying to create this kind of robot — something akin to Rosie from “The Jetsons” — but those efforts have repeatedly fallen short. A major reason has been the lack of sufficient training data to teach robots to consistently grasp and handle objects with different weights, textures, and levels of fragility, such as towels versus wine glasses. As AI technology continues to improve, however, a new wave of robotics companies is entering the market in the hope of finally making the humanoid household helper a reality.