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UK-based Extend Robotics says it has raised £2.6 million in Pre-A funding to scale a service in which manufacturers pay for robotic work completed rather than buying and operating the robot themselves. The company’s model combines robot hardware, remote human operators and AI assistance; it is not a claim that factory tasks are fully autonomous.
What Extend Robotics announced
In an announcement dated 28 September 2026, Extend Robotics said Skyworks Venture Capital Fund led its £2.6 million Pre-A round, with Neo Venture (Europe) and Zip Capital participating. The company said it will use the funding to scale its Result-as-a-Service offer across UK and European industry and develop a remote operator network. Extend Robotics’ announcement did not disclose the round’s valuation, investor ownership, or customer contract terms.
The company’s framing—sell the work getting done rather than the robots—describes its own commercial approach, not a wholesale change across the manufacturing sector. Founder and CEO Chang Liu put it this way: “So stop selling them robots. Sell them the work getting done, price it against the output, and carry the risk ourselves.”
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With a conventional automation purchase, a manufacturer typically buys or commissions equipment and takes responsibility for integrating and operating it. Extend instead says customers pay for completed tasks, while the company takes on more responsibility for deployment and output. That shifts the commercial proposition from capital equipment toward an ongoing service, but does not establish that customers have no integration work or that Extend assumes every operational risk.
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| Question | Conventional automation purchase | Extend Robotics’ stated model |
|---|---|---|
| What is the customer paying for? | Robot equipment and related deployment; the specific purchase terms vary. | Completed work, according to Extend Robotics. |
| Who supplies the robot? | The customer buys or commissions equipment. | Extend describes a service combining robot hardware and remote operation; specific ownership terms are not stated. |
| Who carries deployment and output risk? | The customer generally has responsibility for integration and operating the automation, depending on the agreement. | Extend says it carries more of the deployment and output risk; the contract allocation is not disclosed. |
| How much human input remains? | Depends on the system and task. | Remote human operators control robots, with AI assistance for routine portions of work. |
| Are comparative cost or performance results available? | No directly comparable figures were provided. | Pricing and independently verified task metrics were not disclosed in the cited materials. |
Without published pricing, task-level performance and contract details, the model cannot be declared cheaper or better than buying automation. A buyer would need to compare total cost, integration effort, uptime commitments, task-success criteria and the amount of human intervention for the specific job.
People remain part of the robotics system
Extend says its AMAS platform allows someone without a robotics background to control a robot arm or humanoid remotely through an immersive 3D interface. AI assistance can handle routine portions of tasks, while a human operator remains in the loop. The company’s manufacturing materials also describe VR teleoperation, robot-fleet monitoring and data collection. These descriptions do not establish end-to-end autonomy.
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The company positions the service for work that can be awkward to automate conventionally, including small-batch, high-mix jobs, rework, maintenance and hazardous operations. Its listed manufacturing examples include pick-and-place, post-processing and machine tending. These are intended use cases described by Extend, not independently assessed results for every task or site.
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Deployments and scale figures cited by the company
Extend reports using its system for quality control on live produce at Adrian Scripps, a UK apple grower, on a working packing line. It also cites two kinds of work at Leyland Trucks: teaching a robot to fit high-voltage Master Service Disconnect units and a separate spray-painting deployment for custom components. These are company-reported examples; the cited materials do not publish independently audited performance results.
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- Enhanced Wiring & Performance – Compared to the SO-ARM100, the SO-ARM101 features improved wiring to prevent disconnection at joint 3 and eliminates range-of-motion limitations. The leader arm uses optimized gear ratio motors for smoother performance—no external gearboxes required.
- Real-Time Leader-Follower Functionality – New real-time tracking allows the leader arm to follow the follower arm, enabling human intervention and correction during reinforcement learning (RL) training. Perfect for hands-on AI robotics development and research.
- Open-Source, DIY-Friendly & Nvidia-Compatible – Developed by TheRobotStudio, this open-source AI Arm kit integrates seamlessly with the LeRobot platform, offering PyTorch-based datasets, simulation, training, and deployment tools. Fully compatible with Nvidia Jetson edge devices, including reComputer Mini J4012 Orin NX 16 GB.
- Comprehensive Learning Resources – Includes detailed open-source assembly and calibration guides, testing tutorials, and deployment instructions. From wiring to AI training, get everything you need to start building, teaching, and optimizing your robotic arm for grasping and placing tasks.
In its 2026 announcement, Extend said it had 35 subscription customers across four sales regions and that revenue had doubled year on year for three consecutive years. Those are company-reported figures, not an audited revenue series. The announcement and associated materials do not establish customer-level throughput, accuracy, intervention rates, uptime or unit economics, making it difficult to assess operating performance or compare the service with a conventional installation.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the funding does—and does not—show
The round signals that investors are backing Extend’s plan to grow its service and remote-operator network. It does not by itself demonstrate that the model works economically at scale or that it will suit a particular factory. Manufacturers considering it would need to ask how “completed work” is defined, how exceptions and downtime are handled, what human supervision is included, and how payment changes when output misses a target.
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- Optimized AI Arm Kit for LeRobot & Hugging Face Projects – The SO-ARM101 is an upgraded low-cost robotic arm servo motor kit designed for AI robotics enthusiasts and developers. Fully compatible with LeRobot and Hugging Face frameworks, it supports imitation learning and reinforcement learning, making it ideal for real-world robotics applications. (3D-printed parts not included.)
- Enhanced Wiring & Performance – Compared to the SO-ARM100, the SO-ARM101 features improved wiring to prevent disconnection at joint 3 and eliminates range-of-motion limitations. The leader arm uses optimized gear ratio motors for smoother performance—no external gearboxes required
- Real-Time Leader-Follower Functionality – New real-time tracking allows the leader arm to follow the follower arm, enabling human intervention and correction during reinforcement learning (RL) training. Perfect for hands-on AI robotics development and research
- Open-Source, DIY-Friendly & Nvidia-Compatible – Developed by TheRobotStudio, this open-source AI Arm kit integrates seamlessly with the LeRobot platform, offering PyTorch-based datasets, simulation, training, and deployment tools. Fully compatible with Nvidia Jetson edge devices, including reComputer Mini J4012 Orin NX 16 GB
- Comprehensive Learning Resources – Includes detailed open-source assembly and calibration guides, testing tutorials, and deployment instructions. From wiring to AI training, get everything you need to start building, teaching, and optimizing your robotic arm for grasping and placing tasks
Extend says it was named an official Unitree Robotics integrator. Its announcement also cites selection for NVIDIA’s Robotics Startup Showcase at GTC 2026 and participation in the Google DeepMind Robotics Accelerator Demo Day. These are partnership and program credentials; they do not establish specific product compatibility or independently validate performance.
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The new £2.6 million round is distinct from an earlier investment: Digital Catapult announced a £500,000 convertible loan note investment in Extend Robotics in 2024. Digital Catapult’s announcement describes that earlier financing, not part of the 2026 Pre-A round.
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