{
  "id": 16753525,
  "title": "London robotics startup Machenta raises $40M seed investment",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/27/london-robotics-startup-machenta-raises-40m-seed-investment",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-10-27T13:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Tech.eu",
    "slug": "tech-eu",
    "url": "https://tech.eu/2026/10/27/london-robotics-startup-machenta-raises-40m-seed-investment/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "London robotics startup Machenta, co-founded by robotics professor Edward Johns and his student Vitalis Vosylius, has secured a record $40 million seed investment, the largest raised by a UK robotics company to date. Johns and Vosylius jointly developed an AI model aimed at teaching robots physical tasks more quickly than current methods.\n\nUnlike existing techniques that require numerous demonstrations and can be costly and time-consuming, Machenta's model enables robots to learn new tasks immediately. Johns describes this method as \"physical vibe coding,\" highlighting the model's ability to learn tasks instantly. The company has trained its AI model in simulation using computer-generated environments, without incorporating real-world data.\n\nMachenta's work began six years ago at Imperial College London, where Johns explored the possibility of robots learning new skills as swiftly as humans. The startup's co-founder shared, \"Intelligence is not so much about what you can already do; it's about how quickly you can learn to do something new. Humans don't need to witness the same thing multiple times before they can replicate it. If you show someone some objects and demonstrate what to do with them, they'll likely be able to perform the task immediately.\"\n\nWith the newly acquired funds, Machenta plans to scale its technology and expand its team, which currently consists of around a dozen employees, in its London King's Cross office.",
  "summary": "A London robotics startup co-founded by a robotics professor and his student, which is building an AI model which claims to have discovered a new, quick way of teaching robots physical jobs, has raise...",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}