ROAI Raises $9.4M Series A to Scale Spatial Intelligence-Driven Physical AI Platform for Autonomous Manufacturing

ROAI, a South Korean physical AI startup building spatial intelligence-based infrastructure for autonomous manufacturing, has closed a $9.4M (13B KRW) Series A round.

KB Investment and LB Investment co-led the round, with Doosan Investment joining as a strategic investor. Existing backers Futureplay, Schmidt, and Zero1NE also participated in the follow-on.

Spun out of Hyundai Motor’s Manufacturing Solutions division, ROAI develops AI-powered solutions for autonomous manufacturing infrastructure. The company focuses on bridging the persistent gap between design and factory floor execution — addressing workforce shortages and misalignment between engineering specs and real-world production conditions — by integrating the full workflow from automated process design through on-site deployment.

At the core of ROAI’s technology is an AI model that autonomously generates optimal routing paths for hundreds of robots operating simultaneously in complex environments. The system then validates those paths through simulation built on the NVIDIA Omniverse, ensuring fidelity to actual production conditions and catching bottlenecks before they reach the floor. In practice, applying ROAI’s AI planning has cut robot cycle times by up to 20% compared to conventional approaches, while also reducing on-site deployment lead times.

The company plans to use the new capital to complete its autonomous production infrastructure tech stack and accelerate product development. A key focus is expanding its “AI Operation” capability — which automates robot teaching, the process of programming robot movements — supported by the company’s own testbed facility. Looking further ahead, ROAI aims to deliver a full “AI Factory” environment where production can begin immediately from design data alone, with an eye toward scaling deployments across global manufacturers.

Investors highlighted ROAI’s ability to bring physical AI technology to production-ready maturity, and specifically cited the technical depth of its pipeline — where manufacturing data flows through simulation and feeds directly into robot control — as a key factor in their decision.

“We will continue advancing field-oriented AI technologies, including robot teaching automation, to help manufacturers tackle real productivity challenges,” said Seokui Hong, CEO of ROAI.ROAI was selected for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups’ DeepTech TIPS program in September last year, recommended by MARK & Company. In March of last year, the company raised a $1.01M (1.4B KRW) seed round from Schmidt and MARK & Company. Prior to founding ROAI, Seokui Hong spent roughly a decade at Hyundai Motor, where he led development of AI-based multi-robot offline programming (OLP) prototypes and worked across digital transformation, AI manufacturing technology, and new vehicle production engineering.