Kosla-backed robotics startup Genesis AI has gone a long way, the demo shows

Genesis AIthe startup that raised a $105 million seed to build an AI foundation for robotics, unveiled its first prototype, the GENE-26.5, and it comes with amazing hands. In a demonstration video, the company showcased a number of advanced tasks created by the robotic arms it developed in-house.

“The model has always been the goal, because a good model means good intelligence,” Genesis co-founder and CEO Zhou Xian told TechCrunch. But the company soon realized that it needed to improve the equipment. “So we decided to go all the way,” he said.

Some of the most profitable companies work at the intersection of AI and robotics – such as Physical Intelligence and Skild AI. Zhou also admitted that “there are probably 50 or 100 hand-made companies out there.” But he and co-founder Théophile Gervet hope that their own production will help them succeed.

The main difference is that the hand of Genesis has the same size and shape as a human hand – instead of the two-finger grip that many robotics companies have been using – to reduce the difference from the real world.

“This allows us to collect more data than ever before, to train a model that can do more tasks,” said Gervet, a former research scientist at Mistral AI who is now president of Genesis.

Of all the physical activities shown in the video below, Gervet’s favorite is cooking, as it proves that the robot is able to complete many complex tasks, such as breaking an egg and cutting a tomato. But Genesis has also tasked its robots with preparing smoothies, playing the piano, and solving the Rubik’s cube – a robot. gimmick.

Some jobs, like lab work, are closer to what would be commercial jobs for Genesis technology. But what happens behind the scenes is just as important: The startup has also developed a sensor-filled glove that acts as a real-life double of its robotic hand, gathering data that can be easily manipulated.

“Our idea was that if we can create a robotic hand that tries to mimic the human hand as much as possible, we can immediately open up more information about people without worrying about what people call the ’embodiment gap’ in robotics research,” Zhou said.

Others have they tried their hand in that problem; The main difference is how Genesis combines this with its model. The current version is called GENE-26.5 for May 2026, but Zhou expects that there will be many iterations, because of the simulations it has made. “The real limitation of the repetition speed of the model is the analysis. So this helps us to accelerate the training of the model very much,” he said.

Beyond simulation, however, data will be critical to training models that can help robots perform more tasks. This is also where the Genesis gloves can come in handy. Gervet said that, unlike data collection equipment that gets messy, it’s as lightweight and easy to wear as the safety gloves already used in many industries, while being cheaper to manufacture.

“We are talking to many customers right now, and the main benefit of the gloves would be that, for the first time, you can wear a data collection device while doing your daily work, whether as a lab technician in pharma or manufacturing,” said Gervet. This can also be helped by “egocentric videos” – people filming themselves doing the work.

However, it remains to be seen whether workers will be happy to wear gloves and cameras that can train the robots to replace them, and whether they will get paid extra for the training. This will be between Genesis customers and their employees, Gervet said. He said: “We have not explained in detail.

In either case, they may choose not to share the same with the startup, the startup acknowledged. But the startup also has its own ways to build a “library of human skills” — it can also pay third-party partners to collect data. Its model has already been trained on “a large number of public videos on the Internet,” according to the article, which did not mention compensation.

Combined with its simulation model, this could help Genesis reduce the cost of its technology in real-world applications as it has demonstrated. “This is a very important step for their team and the robotics industry at large,” said former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who invested in the startup.

In July 2025, just a few months after its creation, the initiation began from secret. $105 million seed round led by Eclipse and Khosla Ventures, with other sponsors including Bpifrance, HSG, and people like Schmidt, as well as Xavier Niel, Daniela Rus, and Vladlen Koltun.

This money helped Genesis to increase its number. With offices in Paris and California, it has also expanded into London. “One of the main reasons we chose to be in Europe is that there is great talent across the region,” Gervet said. Its 60-person team is split around “40-45% in Europe and 50-55% in the US,” and the startup is hiring in all three locations.

Aside from the hiring, the company is also planning to unveil its first robotics soon, which Zhou told TechCrunch will be a robot with a full body, not just hands. But he insisted that the map is still the same.

“Our goal is to create a robotic system that is very capable,” he said.