MUSE raises ¥1.75 billion to mass-produce Armo, a store robot that changes jobs through the day

Tokyo startup MUSE has raised ¥1.75 billion from 15 companies, venture firms and financial institutions to mass-produce Armo, a robot that works alongside staff in supermarkets, home centers and drugstores, and to expand in the US, it said on Nov. 5. ALPHA led as a new investor, joined by Rakuten Capital, Gogin Capital and New Commerce Ventures. Six existing backers put in more: Incubate Fund, XTech Ventures, Spiral Capital, Toshiba Tec, Canal Ventures and YMFG Capital.

MUSE's case is that one robot doing several store jobs stays busy enough to pay back. Depending on the hour, Armo carries stock from the backroom for restocking and online-grocery orders, scans shelves for gaps and display problems, runs promotions and guides shoppers, feeding shelf data to MUSE's Eureka Platform. The repeat investors have seen how that works in stores. Incubate Fund, in since 2022, says Armo's use has widened from saving labor to shelf data and promotions; Spiral Capital, which led the previous round, says it would have liked to invest more; Toshiba Tec calls MUSE a strategic partner for next-generation smart stores. The money goes to volume production with outside manufacturing partners, to physical AI for navigation and recognition, and to a US push run by MUSE US Inc.; the release shows Armo at Foodcellar Market in Long Island City, New York.

The round is about three times the ¥570 million, including loans, that MUSE raised in June 2024, when Armo had just begun regular work at two stores of Saitama supermarket chain Belc, THE BRIDGE reported.