Holiday Robotics Raises $105M Series A for Wheeled Humanoid FRIDAY
Seoul startup bets on industrial dexterity over bipedal locomotion in one of South Korea's largest early-stage funding rounds.
Seoul-based Holiday Robotics has secured approximately $105 million (155 billion KRW) in Series A funding to scale production of FRIDAY, a wheeled humanoid robot built for factory floors. Announced in July 2026, the round marks one of the most substantial early-stage investments in South Korean startup history, according to multiple industry reports.
Industrial Focus Over General Purpose
Founded in April 2024 by serial entrepreneur Kiyoung Song—who previously founded SUALAB before its acquisition by Cognex—Holiday Robotics is deliberately sidestepping the bipedal humanoid trend. The company argues that manufacturing environments demand stability and repeatability over human-like locomotion.
"A real factory imposes constraints that never show up in a controlled demo," the company stated. "The robot has to work inside the environment as it already exists, not ask the environment to change around it."
FRIDAY targets automotive, semiconductor, and logistics applications where robots must operate alongside human workers without requiring facility modifications.
Dexterous Hands Take Priority
The robot's engineering priorities are evident in its degrees of freedom allocation. FRIDAY features 63 total DoF across its body, with 40 dedicated to its two hands—each hand carrying 20 DoF with tactile sensing and force-aware control. The remaining DoF distribute across dual 7-DoF arms and a 5-DoF torso. (The company's blog cites 64 DoF, though third-party specifications consistently list 63.)
Standing 176cm tall and weighing 115kg, FRIDAY uses hot-swappable batteries enabling approximately four hours of continuous operation per charge—enough for a standard industrial shift.
Full-Stack Software Approach
Holiday Robotics developed its Vision-Language-Skill (VLS) software architecture to bridge simulation and deployment. The in-house stack includes Holiday Sim for training and Holiday Lab for skill development, allowing the company to iterate on manipulation tasks before physical testing.
Investor Backing
The funding round included existing investor Hyundai Motor Zer01ne alongside Stonebridge Ventures, SpringCamp, Atinum Investment, and Intervest. New participants included IMM Investment, KB Investment, and SL Investment, among others.
The investment signals growing market confidence in task-specific humanoids designed for measurable industrial ROI rather than general-purpose platforms still years from commercial viability. By prioritizing manipulation dexterity over complex legged locomotion, Holiday Robotics positions FRIDAY for near-term deployment in environments where timing, safety, and repeatability determine success.