Ex-Optimus engineer launches European humanoid robot startup UMA
Rémi Cadène, who worked on Tesla's Optimus and built Hugging Face's LeRobot, raised roughly $40 million in seed funding for the Northstar robot.
EBElena Brandt
Published 8 Jul 2026, 13:13Updated 21 Jul 2026, 09:111 min read
- ▸Rémi Cadène, a former Tesla Optimus engineer and creator of Hugging Face's LeRobot, has unveiled humanoid robot startup UMA
- ▸UMA's Northstar robot targets the European market first
- ▸The company raised roughly $40 million in seed funding
- ▸Backers include Greycroft and Factorial
Betting on a European entrant
Targeting Europe first, rather than following the US-first pattern set by Tesla and Figure, positions UMA as a rare regional challenger in a category currently dominated by American and Chinese manufacturers.
Source: Electrek
