Stateful Robotics has raised $4.8 million in pre-seed funding. The round was led by Amadeus Capital Partners and Oxford Science Enterprises, with additional support from Stan Boland, the founder of Five, later acquired by Bosch.
The new funding will be used to expand the engineering team, strengthen the performance engine and accelerate partnerships with industrial players.
Why most robots still struggle in the real world
Despite rapid advances in AI, many robots remain surprisingly fragile outside controlled settings. They can detect objects, follow instructions and make quick decisions, but even minor disruptions can halt operations.
A blocked aisle, poor lighting or a delayed delivery are everyday occurrences in warehouses, infrastructure sites and energy facilities. Yet, most robots treat each moment in isolation. They don’t retain memory of past failures, recurring obstacles or changing workflows. As a result, they require frequent human intervention and struggle to scale reliably.
Even the latest foundation models, while powerful at perception, don’t track what happened yesterday or adapt based on long-term patterns. Memory, which is a missing layer, has become a critical bottleneck.
Building memory into machine intelligence
Stateful Robotics is tackling this gap with what it calls “stateful” AI. Instead of treating every decision as a standalone event, its platform maintains a continuous, shared memory of tasks, environments and prior behaviour. This allows robots to recall what has happened before, anticipate what might go wrong, and adjust their actions accordingly. Missions are no longer rigid sequences but evolving processes shaped by real-world feedback.
By integrating live data, task progress and historical performance into a dynamic model, the system enables robots to plan over longer horizons. The result is more reliable operation in environments where unpredictability is the norm.
The approach mirrors broader developments in AI, where systems are beginning to incorporate memory and persistence into decision-making. Applied to robotics, it could unlock deployments that were previously too complex or costly to manage.
Born from Oxford labs
Stateful Robotics is a spinout from the University of Oxford, built on over a decade of research into autonomy and decision-making under uncertainty. The ambition is to provide the intelligence layer that allows robots to operate consistently in complex, real-world environments.
It is led by CEO Kirsty Lloyd-Jukes, previously CEO of Latent Logic, which was acquired by Alphabet’s Waymo in 2019. She is joined by leading researchers including Professor Nick Hawes, Professor David Parker and Dr Bruno Lacerda, whose work forms the backbone of the company’s technology.
Stateful’s platform is already being tested with pilot customers in sectors such as logistics and infrastructure. These early deployments are helping refine how robots operate across fleets, improving both efficiency and safety.
If successful, Stateful Robotics could help shift the industry from isolated, task-specific machines to systems capable of learning continuously, bringing robotics closer to large-scale, dependable deployment across industries from energy and agriculture to healthcare.
As Co-Founder and Chief Scientist of Stateful Robotics, Professor Nick Hawes explains: “Stateless systems treat every decision in isolation and cannot remember previous incidents or how work actually flows through a site. Stateful’s platform builds a persistent, shared model of tasks, environments and past behaviour that lets robots adapt to disruption and complete missions safely without constant supervision.”
“Mobile robots promise significant productivity gains, but scaling them requires constant reliability and clear, measurable outcomes in the real world,” said Kirsty Lloyd-Jukes, CEO and Co-Founder. “Most robots excel at “what now,” but fail at “what next,” especially when “next” is defined over hours and days, not just minutes. By maintaining a live model of each deployment based on patterns over time, our platform ensures that robots – be they single robot, robot fleets or human-robot teams – perform reliably and consistently.”
Dr. Manjari Chandran-Ramesh, Partner at Amadeus Capital Partners, added: “Robotics has moved from static arms, to mobile units in tightly controlled environments, and now into hybrid-human spaces like factories, hospitals and energy infrastructure. This progression demands a form of intelligence that can reason about changing context over time – not just react to a single camera frame or prompt. Stateful Robotics is tackling that challenge with a novel form of AI that can support mixed forms of robots that are genuinely useful in the industrial settings where mass commercial adoption is likely to happen first.”
Sam Harman, Partner and Head of Deep Tech at Oxford Science Enterprises, commented: “We’re at a point where robotics hardware has largely matured, yet the industry remains stalled by a critical bottleneck: the inability of machines to handle planning over longer time horizons. Stateful’s platform is the missing layer required to turn today’s promising deployments into robust, scalable real‑world solutions. They are uniquely placed to bridge the gap between world-class robotics research and the complex, high-stakes surroundings of global industry.”
Dr Emmanuel Raptakis, Deputy Head of Licensing & Ventures – Physical Sciences, Oxford University Innovation, commented: “Stateful Robotics is a great example of how Oxford’s deep research base can translate into impactful commercial innovation. The company’s technology has the potential to enhance the performance, reliability and uptake of autonomous robotic systems across a wide range of demanding environments. We’re pleased to have worked in close partnership with the founders from the early days, supporting the company’s formation and helping to position it for investment and growth.”
