AI development platform Hugging Face has acquired French robotics startup Pollen Robotics for an undisclosed sum. According to Wired, Hugging Face intends to offer Pollen’s humanoid robot, Reachy 2, for sale while also making its code available for developers to download and contribute improvements.
Founded in 2016 by Matthieu Lapeyre and Pierre Rouanet, Pollen Robotics focuses on creating affordable humanoid robots for home use. Prior to the acquisition, the company had secured €2.5 million (approximately $2.83 million) in funding from investors such as Bpifrance, as reported by Crunchbase.
The acquisition signals a deeper push into robotics for Hugging Face, which had already been collaborating with Pollen. In the previous year, the two companies partnered to develop “Le Robot,” an open-source humanoid designed to perform various household tasks. Hugging Face has also formed its own robotics division, headed by Remi Cadene, a former engineer from Tesla’s Optimus robotics program.
