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Company Profile: 1X Technologies
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Timeline of Key Milestones
2014
Company founded in Norway as Halodi Robotics by Bernt Øivind Børnich and Nguyen Ho Quoc Phuong, with a mission to create general-purpose humanoid robots that can safely work alongside people. Early development focused on custom robotic actuators and balanced mobility.2018
Development of the Revo1 servo motor – a high-torque, low weight direct-drive actuator inspired by human tendon mechanics. This proprietary technology became a core component enabling the robots’ human-like movements with low gearing and low friction.2021
Strategic partnership with ADT Commercial announced. Halodi received an investment from ADT to develop humanoid security robots. Pilot programs began for “EvoGuard” robots to patrol and perform security tasks, leveraging remote teleoperation when needed.2022
Halodi/1X signs a contract to deliver 140 humanoid robots to ADT Commercial – the industry’s largest single order of humanoid robots for security applications. The wheeled humanoid model (later known as EVE) was deployed in real customer facilities to handle routine patrols and tasks autonomously.2023
Rebranding to 1X Technologies. Halodi Robotics officially changes its name to “1X” in March 2023, reflecting a new chapter and vision for humanoids “working at 1x speed” among people. That same month, 1X raises a $23.5 million Series A funding round led by OpenAI and Tiger Global. With approximately 50 employees and offices in Norway and the U.S., 1X deploys its first batch of EVE robots at scale (with a manufacturing goal of 140 units between Norway and Texas). The company also shifts focus to a new bipedal android project, NEO, aiming at consumer/home environments.2024
$100 million Series B funding led by EQT Ventures closes (total funding now $125M). New investors like Samsung Next join, and 1X conducts a secondary transaction to reward early employees. The first prototype of 1X’s bipedal humanoid, NEO Beta, is revealed and demonstrated, marking the company’s expansion from wheeled robots to full humanoid form. A public demo shows multiple EVE units performing tasks autonomously via end-to-end AI (no teleoperators), indicating progress in 1X’s embodied AI software.2025
1X acquires California startup Kind Humanoid (January 2025) to integrate its small team and expertise in humanoid design and AI. In February 2025, NEO Gamma – an improved, second-generation bipedal humanoid – is introduced with a softer design and upgraded onboard AI. The company launches a private early-access program to put NEO robots in a few hundred homes by the end of 2025, gathering real-world learning data. While still far from full commercial release, these home trials (with safety measures and teleoperation support) are a key step in 1X’s roadmap toward humanoids that “live and learn” among people. The company announces a research collaboration with Nvidia.
Humanoid Robots and Technology
An EVE humanoid robot (Halodi/1X design) on patrol uses a self-balancing wheeled base developed for security and industrial tasks.
1X’s product line centers on humanoid robots that can operate in human environments. The company’s first commercial platform is EVE, a wheeled humanoid robot about human height. EVE balances on two large wheels (with a small caster for stability) instead of legs, trading off some mobility in rough terrain for greater simplicity and safety indoors. It features dual robotic arms with Revo1 direct-drive motors, enabling human-level strength and fine force control with minimal noise. EVE’s hands are relatively simple grippers, sufficient for basic manipulation like opening doors or picking up objects. The robot has an expressive LED face panel and a fabric-covered body—design choices meant to appear approachable in workplaces. In pilot deployments, EVE units have been shown performing tasks such as sorting mail, carrying packages, and tidying up toys in office-like settings. Notably, a 2024 demonstration had a fleet of EVE robots running fully autonomously under a vision-based neural network controller (with no scripted actions or remote operators), highlighting 1X’s progress in AI-driven robotics. This suggests that, within controlled environments, EVE can learn and execute back-to-back tasks through observation and AI, an important step toward general-purpose autonomy. That said, EVE’s deployments to date have been limited and closely supervised, with 1X continuing to refine the robot’s capabilities in real customer pilots.
1X demonstrates what they call 'End-to-end Autonomy'
Building on the EVE experience, 1X shifted focus to a more ambitious bipedal humanoid named NEO. Unlike the wheeled EVE, NEO robots walk on two legs, making them better suited to environments designed for humans (stairs, tight spaces, etc.) at the cost of greater complexity. NEO Beta, unveiled in 2024, was 1X’s first full-scale biped prototype.
Introducing the NEO Gamma
By early 2025, the improved NEO Gamma was introduced as a step toward a home-ready humanoid. NEO Gamma stands roughly human-sized with a humanoid torso, arms, and a head-like sensor cluster. Recognizing safety as paramount, 1X outfitted Gamma with a soft knitted nylon outer suit to cushion accidental contact with people. Its intentionally non-threatening appearance features a sleek, faceless headshield with two camera “eyes” and a neutral gray body, lacking exposed metal or wires. In home environment demos, NEO Gamma has shown gentle object handling and an unobtrusive design. The NEO platform leverages advanced balance and locomotion software (partially AI-based) to walk, turn, and use its arms for tasks like watering plants or vacuuming. However, NEO is still in early development—during a 2025 demo, a NEO Gamma unit faltered and had to be caught by the CEO when a network issue caused a loss of control. Such incidents underscore the technical challenges of bipedal robotics. Currently, many tasks are executed in “teleoperated” mode, where a remote human operator takes control via the robot’s cameras when the AI alone is insufficient. This hybrid approach allows 1X to begin testing NEO in real homes while acknowledging that true autonomy remains a work in progress.
Under the hood, 1X emphasizes embodied AI—integrating artificial intelligence into physical robotic bodies. The company develops much of its AI software in-house, including models for vision, language understanding, and motion, often co-training algorithms with partners (such as OpenAI and Nvidia). For example, 1X has explored large language models to make human-robot interaction more natural, and it employs reinforcement learning from real-world trials to enhance the robots’ skills. The guiding philosophy is that robots “need to live and learn among us” to truly grasp the nuances of daily human life. This means deploying prototypes like NEO into homes and workplaces to gather data and iterate on both hardware and software. The company also addresses privacy concerns by allowing early users to control when 1X personnel can access a robot’s on-board cameras or microphones. Ultimately, the long-term vision is a “safe, intelligent humanoid” capable of adapting to unstructured environments, performing a wide range of assistive tasks, and augmenting human labor rather than replacing it.
Founders and Leadership
1X Technologies was co-founded by Bernt Øivind Børnich, who serves as Chief Executive Officer, and Nguyen Ho Quoc Phuong, the Chief Science Officer. Børnich, a Norwegian engineer, started the company (originally Halodi Robotics) in 2014 with a vision of creating affordable humanoid robots that could work directly with people. He has consistently articulated 1X’s goal of developing “androids at commercial scale” while emphasizing safety and human-centric design. As CEO, Børnich has guided the company through early R&D, pilot deployments, and fundraising. Phuong, as CSO, leads the scientific and technical research, driving the development of actuator technology and AI algorithms that power 1X’s robots. Together, they have maintained a focus on long-term innovation in humanoid form factors despite challenging engineering hurdles in actuation, balance, and machine learning.
The leadership team expanded as the company grew. By the mid-2020s, 1X had built an international presence with offices in Norway (Moss and Oslo) and in the U.S. (Silicon Valley and Texas). The company’s “roots in Norway and Silicon Valley” are reflected in its diverse team of seasoned roboticists, AI researchers, and hardware engineers—including alumni from firms like Google (with recent hire Eric Jang, a former Google Brain robotics researcher, leading AI development). Following the rebranding and 2023 funding, 1X also brought on advisors and board members from its investor network, with Tiger Global and OpenAI assuming board observer roles. In 2024, EQT Ventures’ partner Ted Persson publicly endorsed 1X’s vision, further reinforcing investor confidence.
Day-to-day, Børnich remains the public face of 1X, frequently giving demos and interviews that candidly address the challenges of humanoid robotics—for example, noting that NEO is “a long way from commercial scaling” and that full autonomy will require many more years of development. Other key figures include CTO Øystein Skar, focused on hardware (especially the Revo motors), and VP of Manufacturing Jeff Weinstein, who oversees the scaling of robot production. The AI team, co-led by experts like Eric Jang, underscores 1X’s heavy investment in developing advanced software for its robots. Overall, the leadership culture blends curiosity about robotic learning in real-world settings with a strong emphasis on safety and ethics.
If further details on certain executives or organizational structure are not provided, it is because they could not be verified in public sources. 1X is a private company and detailed profiles beyond the founders are limited.
Funding History and Partnerships
1X has attracted significant attention—and capital—from both venture investors and strategic partners in tech and security industries. Initially operating in R&D mode with modest funding as Halodi, a turning point occurred in April 2021 when ADT Commercial partnered with and invested in the company to develop humanoid security robots under its EvoGuard program. This collaboration provided 1X with a crucial real-world use case (security patrols) and a large initial customer. By early 2022, ADT’s commitment translated into an order for 140 robots, marking the largest humanoid robot order in the industry to date and positioning 1X as a serious player in enterprise service robotics. The partnership also spurred co-development on features like two-way communication (allowing a guard robot to speak via a remote operator) and autonomous navigation for patrol routes.
The next major capital influx came from the world of AI. In March 2023, 1X announced its Series A funding round of about $23.5 million, led by OpenAI with participation from Tiger Global and others. OpenAI’s involvement was notable as one of its first forays into robotics investment, reflecting confidence in 1X’s approach to melding physical robots with advanced AI. The funds were earmarked for scaling manufacturing of EVE and accelerating the development of the bipedal NEO platform. Tiger Global’s participation further signaled venture capital interest in humanoid startups. The Series A also included Norwegian investors (e.g., Sandwater), indicating a mix of local and international support. Later, in January 2024, 1X closed a $100 million Series B round led by EQT Ventures, bringing total funding to roughly $125 million in under 12 months. This round involved a secondary share sale that allowed early investors and employees to realize some equity, underscoring the company’s lean operational history until that point. The fresh capital was intended to support two main goals:
- Go-to-market preparations for NEO, including pilot deployments and eventual consumer offerings.
- Expansion of the company’s embodied AI software efforts to make its robots smarter and more autonomous.
In addition to investor funding, 1X established several strategic partnerships. A collaboration with Mitsubishi (via its subsidiary MELFA) in 2022 focused on actuator components, and more prominently, 1X worked with NVIDIA on AI and simulation—evidenced by a March 2025 blog post detailing a research week in NVIDIA’s robotics lab training NEO Gamma for domestic tasks. Furthermore, the January 2025 acquisition of Kind Humanoid—a small Bay Area startup led by ex-Google researcher Christoph Kohstall—brought in talent and consolidated intellectual property in the home robotics space. This acquisition highlights 1X’s ambition to lead in home-focused humanoids amid a competitive field that includes players like Figure AI, Tesla Optimus, and Sanctuary AI.
In summary, 1X’s funding history reflects growing confidence in humanoid robotics—from strategic corporate partnerships with ADT to marquee investors such as OpenAI, Tiger Global, and EQT Ventures. These partnerships have not only provided capital but also technical collaboration (e.g., AI training with OpenAI/NVIDIA) and market access. As of early 2025, 1X has secured a strong financial runway, even as the broader industry remains in flux.
Recent Developments and Future Plans
As 1X Technologies moves through 2025, it stands at an inflection point between R&D and initial deployment. The latest updates center on pushing the NEO humanoid into real homes under controlled conditions. In March 2025, CEO Bernt Børnich announced plans to deploy NEO Gamma robots in “a few hundred to a few thousand” households by the end of the year as part of an early adopter program. This beta test involves selected users (likely tech enthusiasts or partners) hosting a humanoid robot in their homes, interacting with it and assigning tasks while 1X gathers feedback and performance data. The goal is to expose NEO to the unpredictability of home life—something that cannot be fully replicated in a lab—to accelerate its learning. Børnich remarked, “We want it to live and learn among people, and to do that, we need people to take NEO into their home and help us teach it how to behave.”
NEO will always have a human teleoperator on standby; 1X is “bootstrapping” the robot’s capabilities by using remote operators via VR control when the AI cannot handle a situation. This hybrid autonomy approach is crucial for safety, as a 78 kg metal robot roaming a home poses significant risks. Safeguards such as explicit user permission for camera access, emergency stop functions, and a padded suit are in place to mitigate potential issues.
Announcing a research collaboration together with Nvidia
On the product roadmap, fully autonomous home humanoids remain years away from general availability. NEO Gamma is currently a prototype, with details on unit numbers, pricing, and the business model still under wraps. A public waitlist on the 1X website invites interested parties to receive future updates. Future technical developments are expected to focus on improving manipulation abilities, increasing battery life, and advancing AI to reduce reliance on teleoperators. Additional software updates—such as enhanced voice command understanding and task chaining, as noted in a mid-2024 blog post by AI lead Eric Jang—are also anticipated, with integration of large language models (LLMs) to facilitate natural language instructions.
Meanwhile, 1X’s EVE robots continue to serve enterprise clients in logistics and healthcare. The ongoing collaboration with ADT Commercial, which began with a prototype unveiled at CES 2023, is expected to expand as ADT rolls out robotic security guard services to clients. In the broader industry context, 1X’s “home-first” approach distinguishes it from competitors that largely target industrial or logistics applications. Although the vision of affordable, autonomous humanoid helpers remains “many years away,” 1X is pursuing a crawl-walk-run strategy—deploying limited prototypes, learning from each trial, and gradually increasing both capability and autonomy.
To conclude, 1X Technologies offers an informed and measured case study in the nascent humanoid robotics sector. The journey from fundamental engineering breakthroughs, such as the Revo1 actuator, to real-world applications in security and factory settings, and now toward integration into private homes, underscores the company’s deliberate and pragmatic approach. With significant funding, a diverse leadership team, and strategic partnerships, 1X is steadily progressing toward the goal of scalable, safe humanoid robotics. As the next few years unfold, industry watchers like Humanoids Daily will be keenly observing whether 1X can transition from prototype to scalable product while balancing innovation with public safety and usability.
Here's a list of the sources we used for this article:
EVE - ROBOTS: Your Guide to the World of Robotics
About 1X Technologies | Androids Built to Benefit Society
https://1xtech.medium.com/halodi-robotics-announces-rebranding-changes-name-to-1x-847cc5a15b4b
1X Secures $100M Series B Funding | Startups Magazine
1X will test humanoid robots in 'a few hundred' homes in 2025 | TechCrunch
OpenAI's Eve humanoids make impressive progress in autonomous work
Everything You Wanted to Know About 1X’s Latest Video - IEEE Spectrum