PETALING JAYA: Malaysia-based robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) company Mr Robot has secured US$5 million (RM19.75 million) in strategic funding backed by MR DIY International, Agibot and The Hub’s Investment Group to accelerate the development of embodied AI technologies for retail and commercial environments.
Founded by Edwin Yap, Mr Robot focuses on deploying robotics beyond controlled industrial environments into dynamic settings such as supermarkets, warehouses and service operations.
“For decades, robots have largely been confined to static tasks inside factories. The next frontier for robotics lies in real-world environments where machines can work alongside people in retail, logistics and service operations,” said Yap.
Unlike traditional robotics firms that focus primarily on hardware, Mr Robot is developing an ecosystem that combines robot training environments, data collection systems and AI models, allowing robots to learn directly from operational environments and continuously improve their performance.
The company said the technology is designed to address growing operational pressures in the retail and logistics sectors, including labour shortages, rising costs and increasing service expectations.
Mr Robot is currently working with retail partners to pilot robotics solutions in live store environments, enabling robots to learn from real-world data while supporting operational tasks. This includes developing robotic applications for tasks such as shelf replenishment, customer assistance, autonomous goods movement and store monitoring.
“Embodied AI – where artificial intelligence is integrated into physical machines that can see, move and interact with their surroundings – will play a growing role in commercial operations. With the capital injection, the company can continue to invest in expanding the robotics research and AI development, build dedicated training and data infrastructure, deploy pilot systems across retail and logistics sectors, and develop regional engineering talent.” stated Yap.
Following the funding round, Mr Robot plans to accelerate product development and expand pilot programmes across Southeast Asia.