The American manufacturing sector is getting a serious high-tech boost to combat a multi-decade decline in domestic production. Since 1979, the U.S. industrial workforce plummeted from 20 million workers down to roughly 13 million, leaving factories struggling to keep up with global competition. To fix this, New York-based robotics startup Standard Bots announced a $200 million Series C funding round to scale up its fleet of AI-native industrial robots.
The injection of capital officially pushes the company’s valuation to $1 billion, turning it into a tech unicorn. RoboStrategy led the investment round, with existing backers like General Catalyst and GiantLeap Capital jumping in too. The money is going straight into expanding the company’s manufacturing facility in Glen Cove, New York, to 70,000 square feet to ramp up domestic assembly lines.
How Zero-Code Humanoids Learn by Watching Humans
What makes these machines so wild is that they do not require a single line of code to operate. Instead of hiring expensive software engineers to program every tiny movement, factory workers train these robots through simple demonstration and observation. You just guide the robot arm through the task once, and the built-in AI models figure out the rest on their own.
This approach makes it incredibly easy for small and medium-sized machine shops to automate tasks like welding, packaging, and assembly without tech bottlenecks. The company designs its hardware and software under one roof, making the integration remarkably smooth. According to a formal announcement on PR Newswire, the startup is already on pace to supply 10% of all new industrial robot deployments across the country by next year.
From Metal Sheets to Finished Humanoids by 2027
Standard Bots has set an aggressive timeline to ensure its entire supply chain stays within U.S. borders. By 2027, the team plans to manufacture 100% of its robot components domestically, ensuring true independence from foreign supply chains. CEO Evan Beard wants to handle everything from raw metal sheets to finished walking humanoids completely inside their New York facilities.
The strategy is already turning heads at the highest levels of industry and defense. Heavyweights like Amazon, Lockheed Martin, Sunoco, NASA, and the U.S. Army are already deploying these zero-code machines in their daily operations. Beard and his team are also advising Washington lawmakers on creating a official National Robotics Strategy to keep the country competitive against global rivals.
Reshoring Factory Labor Through Human-Demonstrated Automation
The sudden influx of capital into zero-code automation shows how fast industrial manufacturing is reacting to labor shortages. By lowering the entry barrier for automation, Standard Bots allows existing factory workers to become robot supervisors instantly. This shift directly addresses the loss of 7 million industrial jobs since the late 1970s by giving smaller domestic shops the exact same technological advantages as overseas mega-factories.