Tokyo-based O-ID has raised $1.2 million in pre-seed funding to move a modular industrial humanoid from prototype toward production. Japan's factories face deepening labor gaps, and the company says a single failed part on today's general-purpose humanoids can idle a machine for months. Hot-swappable joints, limbs, and compute units are the pitch: replace a worn module on the floor in minutes instead of shipping the whole robot out.
The Next Web reported the round on Sept. 24, 2026. Chicago firm TAWANI Ventures led, with Hustle Fund, Techstars, and angels also participating. Techstars published a same-day startup spotlight that matches the $1.2 million figure and the modular repair story. O-ID's own site frames the product as made-in-Japan humanoids with swappable modules for manufacturing, logistics, and inspection.
TNW also reports a letter of intent with Sumitomo Electric Industries. The two sides plan to discuss using Sumitomo Electric wire-harness technology in humanoid robots. That is an LOI to start talks, not a signed supply deal, and Sumitomo Electric has not issued a matching O-ID release in the materials reviewed for this article.
Co-founders Stian Jakobsen (CEO) and Simon Gormuzov (CTO) met at Waseda University and founded O-ID in Tokyo in 2025. The company came through Techstars Tokyo that year. It says first deployments target Japanese automotive manufacturing and logistics, with a later path to the United States, and that it has filed a provisional U.S. patent on modular connector technology.
What remains open is how fast prototypes become paid factory seats, what the Sumitomo talks produce, and whether independent trade desks beyond TNW and Techstars pick up the round. Until those clear, the story is a small Japan-made modular bet with a named lead investor in press coverage, not proof that hot-swap humanoids already run a line.