Meet Feather, the startup building the ‘Android of robotics’ for developers
Meet Feather, the startup building the ‘Android of robotics’ for developers
认识 Feather：这家初创公司正在为开发者打造“机器人界的安卓”
If there is one thing robotics founders and investors agree on, it’s that the “ChatGPT moment” where a general-purpose robot can seamlessly adapt to any environment has not arrived. Opinions vary on whether the breakthrough is just around the corner or a decade away. 如果说机器人领域的创始人和投资者在某一点上达成了共识，那就是那种能够无缝适应任何环境的通用型机器人的“ChatGPT 时刻”尚未到来。至于这一突破是近在咫尺还是尚需十年，各方观点不一。
Feather Robotics, a humanoid startup founded last year, is developing a robot for either timeline. Unlike Tesla or Figure, which are tackling the lofty mission of building both the body and a foundational “brain” that isn’t yet widely deployed, Feather provides the hardware and software toolkit for developers to tackle real-world tasks now. 去年成立的人形机器人初创公司 Feather Robotics 正在开发一款能够适应上述两种时间线的机器人。与特斯拉（Tesla）或 Figure 不同，后者正致力于构建机身和尚未广泛部署的基础“大脑”这一宏大目标，而 Feather 则为开发者提供了一套软硬件工具包，让他们现在就能处理现实世界的任务。
“You can’t buy a Tesla robot today and develop on top of it,” Feather co-founder Hoa Mai told TechCrunch. “We realized that this is not how most companies became successful. Hardware players like Nvidia or Apple started with a product that worked and was deployable, and then they added complexity over time.” “你现在买不到特斯拉的机器人并在其基础上进行开发，”Feather 联合创始人 Hoa Mai 告诉 TechCrunch。“我们意识到，大多数公司的成功并非源于此。像英伟达（Nvidia）或苹果（Apple）这样的硬件厂商，都是从一款可行且可部署的产品起步，然后随着时间的推移增加复杂性。”
In 2025, after his previous humanoid startup was sold to 1X, Mai (pictured above, left) teamed up with Parsa Bakhtiari (pictured above, right), a former Tesla Model 3 engineer who at one point reported directly to Elon Musk, to build what the duo hopes will become the Android of robotics. That vision was attractive to Gradient Ventures, which backed Feather at its inception, leading the startup’s previously announced $7.6 million pre-seed round. 2025 年，在将其之前的人形机器人初创公司出售给 1X 后，Mai（上图左）与曾任特斯拉 Model 3 工程师、一度直接向埃隆·马斯克（Elon Musk）汇报工作的 Parsa Bakhtiari（上图右）联手，希望打造出他们心目中的“机器人界安卓”。这一愿景吸引了 Gradient Ventures，该公司在 Feather 成立之初就提供了支持，并领投了该初创公司此前宣布的 760 万美元种子轮前融资。
Since then, Feather has rolled out a modular robotic system that allows developers to customize the hardware for different use cases, such as adjusting arm lengths. The startup has already begun selling to customers, surpassing $1 million in revenue. Although Feather is not disclosing its customers, it said that its robots are working as cooks in restaurants and cleaning up science labs. 此后，Feather 推出了一套模块化机器人系统，允许开发者针对不同的使用场景定制硬件，例如调整手臂长度。该初创公司已经开始向客户销售产品，营收超过了 100 万美元。虽然 Feather 没有披露其客户名单，但表示其机器人目前正在餐厅担任厨师，并在科学实验室进行清洁工作。
On the software side, the hardware can run models from any leading robotics AI provider, including Nvidia, Skild, or Physical Intelligence. “We’ve been selling small quantities of these robots, and now that we resolved like almost all the issues over the last year of field testing, we’re getting ready for a big product launch,” Mai said. 在软件方面，该硬件可以运行任何领先机器人 AI 提供商的模型，包括英伟达、Skild 或 Physical Intelligence。“我们一直在小批量销售这些机器人，现在我们已经解决了过去一年实地测试中几乎所有的问题，正准备进行大规模的产品发布，”Mai 说道。
According to Darian Shirazi, general partner at Gradient, Feather doesn’t have direct competitors in the U.S. He breaks down the current hardware robotics landscape into three categories: startups like Sunday building domestic household robots, heavyweights like Figure and Tesla aiming for general-purpose machines, and Feather, which, he believes, is the only U.S. startup developing a modular humanoid platform. 据 Gradient 的普通合伙人 Darian Shirazi 称，Feather 在美国没有直接竞争对手。他将当前的硬件机器人格局分为三类：像 Sunday 那样制造家用机器人的初创公司；像 Figure 和特斯拉那样瞄准通用机器人的重量级企业；以及 Feather——他认为这是美国唯一一家开发模块化人形机器人平台的初创公司。
Mai admits that Feather took a page from Chinese robotics companies like Unitree. But with new foreign-made models restricted from entering the U.S. market, Feather is now uniquely positioned as a homegrown option of its kind。 Mai 承认 Feather 借鉴了宇树科技（Unitree）等中国机器人公司的经验。但随着新的外国制造机型被限制进入美国市场，Feather 现在作为此类产品中的本土选择，处于独特的地位。
Feather’s other advantage is its price. The robot costs $30,000, which is about half the price Unitree’s H2 Edu. Shirazi believes the market size at that price could be very large. “You would hire a laborer for $50,000 to $60,000 a year, you’d have to train [them]. They’d have to have HR. They’d have to have all these different support mechanisms,” he said. “You can now buy a Feather robot to do that.” Feather 的另一个优势是价格。该机器人售价为 3 万美元，约为宇树 H2 Edu 价格的一半。Shirazi 认为，在这个价位下，市场规模可能非常巨大。“你雇佣一名劳工每年需要花费 5 万到 6 万美元，你还得培训他们，还得有 HR 管理，还得有各种配套支持机制，”他说，“现在你可以买一台 Feather 机器人来完成这些工作。”
Feather is also operating extremely efficiently, having spent only a fraction of its pre-seed funding, according to Shirazi. The startup’s big bet, of course, is that the value in robotics will come from an ecosystem developed around the hardware. 据 Shirazi 称，Feather 的运营效率极高，种子轮前融资仅花费了一小部分。当然，这家初创公司最大的赌注在于，机器人领域的价值将来自于围绕硬件构建的生态系统。
“If we think about the market size today for physical AI companies, it’s very small,” Mai said. “But if you think about how many physical AI application companies will probably exist in five years, we expect it to be in the thousands.” Feather hopes to be the platform that powers all of them. “如果我们考虑今天物理 AI 公司的市场规模，它非常小，”Mai 说，“但如果你考虑到五年后可能会有多少家物理 AI 应用公司，我们预计会有数千家。”Feather 希望成为驱动所有这些公司的平台。