South Korean startup Holiday Robotics has raised KRW 155 billion, approximately $103 million, as it prepares to move its FRIDAY humanoid robot from prototype development towards commercial production for manufacturing customers.
The Series A financing is significant not only because of its size, but because the company has attached the funding to a specific industrialisation programme. Holiday Robotics aims to establish capacity to produce 100 robots annually in 2026, increase that figure to 1,000 in 2027 and eventually create manufacturing infrastructure capable of producing more than 10,000 units a year.
FRIDAY is a wheeled humanoid designed for repetitive work in factories and logistics environments. Rather than using legs, the robot moves on a wheeled base, allowing the company to focus on manipulation, mobility and operating efficiency in relatively structured industrial settings.
The robot stands 176 centimetres tall and has 64 degrees of freedom across its head, arms, hands, waist and mobile base. Holiday Robotics is positioning the system for tasks currently performed by people in sectors including automotive manufacturing, semiconductor production and logistics.
The company says it is already conducting proof-of-technology projects with companies in these industries and is targeting the commercial introduction of FRIDAY during the second half of 2026. Holiday Robotics has not disclosed the names of the participating companies, the number of robots involved or the specific applications being tested.
Its stated production targets therefore represent planned capacity rather than confirmed deliveries. Establishing a production system for 100 units would nevertheless mark a change in the company’s development phase, requiring it to address issues such as component sourcing, assembly, quality control, maintenance and integration into existing factory processes.
Holiday Robotics says part of the new investment will be used to develop its mass-production system and expand its research and development workforce to more than 100 employees. Through greater production volumes, the company is also targeting a price of around KRW 100 million per robot, equivalent to approximately $67,000 at current exchange rates. It has not said whether that figure would include software, installation, integration or ongoing support.
“We will successfully achieve commercialization at manufacturing sites and prove the practical utility of humanoid robots,” CEO Song Ki-young said in the company’s funding announcement.
Existing investors Stonebridge Ventures, Atinum Investment, InterVest and SpringCamp participated in the round. New investors included IMM Investment, SL Investment, KB Investment, BonAngels Venture Partners, Premier Partners and Goodwater Capital. The Korea Development Bank and the Industrial Bank of Korea also took part.
Holiday Robotics described the financing as the largest Series A round raised by a South Korean startup. The company was founded in 2024 and previously raised KRW 17.5 billion in seed financing.
The scale of the new round gives Holiday Robotics capital to compete in an increasingly production-focused humanoid market. Manufacturers are moving beyond demonstrations and beginning to evaluate robots for defined tasks such as material handling, component movement and repetitive production work.
For Holiday Robotics, the next test will be whether FRIDAY can perform those tasks reliably enough to justify its purchase and integration costs. The company has set out an ambitious production roadmap, but has yet to disclose customer orders, deployment results or performance data from its industrial trials.
