Persona AI

Persona AI is a Houston-based humanoid robotics company developing industrial robots specifically designed for physically demanding shipbuilding tasks like welding, in partnership with major shipbuilder HD Hyundai.

Persona AI was founded in 2024 by Nicolaus Radford, the former founder and CEO of Nauticus Robotics who previously spent 15 years at NASA as principal investigator at its Dexterous Robotics Lab, together with Jerry Pratt, who serves as chief technology officer after previously holding the same role at Figure AI, and Jide Akinyode, former vice president of engineering at Nauticus Robotics who serves as chief operating officer, an unusually experienced founding team for such a young company, drawing directly on prior robotics leadership roles at other prominent companies in the humanoid and maritime robotics space. Rather than pursuing the more commonly targeted warehouse, logistics, or general manufacturing applications that most other humanoid robotics startups have focused on, Persona AI has deliberately positioned its robots for the distinctly challenging environment of shipbuilding, an industry facing severe and worsening skilled labor shortages, particularly for physically demanding and hazardous tasks like welding in confined, heat- and spark-filled shipyard spaces where injury rates run more than double those of the construction and general manufacturing industries, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The company's Persona Humanoid, standing 175 centimeters tall and weighing 85 kilograms, is designed to perform complex welding, material handling, and hull assembly tasks that fixed robotic arms cannot handle given shipyards' need for robots that can climb scaffolding, crawl into confined compartments, and adapt to constantly changing conditions. Persona AI has signed a memorandum of understanding with HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering and HD Hyundai Robotics to jointly develop welding-capable humanoid robots, with prototype completion targeted for the end of 2026 and field testing and commercialization beginning in 2027, and has separately partnered with the American Bureau of Shipping, a major maritime classification society, to help establish new industry data and safety standards governing how humanoid robots can be certified for shipyard use. The company raised a $27 million pre-seed funding round from investors including Unity Growth.

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