The Most Promising Open Source Robotics Startups in 2025
Thanks to the efforts of these companies, robotics development has become increasingly democratized.
Open source has won mobile and cloud, but will it dominate the next frontier of computing: physical artificial intelligence?
Open source offers clear advantages for robotics: it levels the playing field, speeds development, and contributes to standardization.
However, open source isn’t free, and the maintainers and developers have to pay the cost somehow. Balancing openness and commercialization is a challenge that some robotics companies manage well and others don’t.
Here are some of the companies supporting open source robotics and keeping the lights on at the same time:
Evezor
Evezor is an “unimaginably hackable platform” created by Andrew Wingate. Wingate is based in Chicago and a volunteer area host at the city’s oldest and largest hackerspace, Pumping Station One.
Evezor has raised funds for its open source robotic products through crowdfunding campaigns on Kickstarter and Crowd Supply. These include the Tobor robot arm, the Evezor SCARA robot arm, and modular edge boards. The platform also offers a graphical drag-and-drop programming environment for simplified automation workflows without coding.
Evezor's mission is to democratize manufacturing with affordable, open source hardware and software solutions. They are a smaller player than the rest of this list, but no less relevant.
Clearpath Robotics
Founded in 2009 by four University of Waterloo graduates, Clearpath Robotics is a subsidiary of Rockwell Automation and one of Canada’s top robotics startups. Clearpath’s focus is on mobile robots for research and development and envisions “to boldly go where no robot has gone before.”
Clearpath Robotics contributes to the open source robotics ecosystem, especially the Robot Operating System (ROS) and the TurtleBot series. The company supports robotics developers and researchers via its PartnerBot Grant program, on the condition that code and results are contributed back to the ROS community. Clearpath is also notable for being the first robotics company to pledge not to make “killer robots.”
PAL Robotics
PAL Robotics is a Barcelona-based company specializing in humanoid and service robots. It was founded in 2004 and aims to “enhance quality of life through service robotics.” They debuted TALOS, Europe’s first autonomous humanoid biped robot, in 2017.
PAL’s robots are built on the open source ROS framework, and the company actively contributes to the community via open source packages and tools, including the mobile manipulation robot TIAGo and the social robot ARI. The company also participates in open source robotics projects such as ROS OpenWalker, OpenDR, and Google Summer of Code
Robotis
Founded in Seoul, South Korea, Robotis specializes in smart industrial actuators and autonomous robotic platforms. It is best known for its Dynamixel line of all-in-one smart actuators, which are widely used in humanoid robots and mobile platforms. The actuators are programmable and use a daisy-chain network configuration.
Robotis has supported and released a number of open source projects, including the Dynamixel SDK, the DARwIn-OP miniature humanoid robot platform, OpenCR, OpenMANIPULATOR-X, and TurtleBot3.
Hugging Face
Hugging Face is a popular artificial intelligence library and community based in New York City. It debuted as an AI-powered chatbot for teenagers in 2016 and has since pivoted to become the largest artificial intelligence community.
They ventured into robotics with the extensive LeRobot robotics code library and collaborated with Pollen Robotics to create an open source robot, Reachy 2. A partnership with French robotics developer, TheRobotStudio, resulted in the famous SO-100 robotic arm. Nvidia’s GROOT N1 foundation model was released on the Hugging Face platform and also finetuned to run on the SO-100 arm.
Hugging Face wants to be the “GitHub of AI,” and its leadership has expressed a desire to democratize robotics. The company is backing its statements with bold moves, acquiring Pollen Robotics and releasing a new-and-improved SO-101 robotic arm.
NVIDIA
NVIDIA, the quintessential pick-and-shovel company, is betting heavily on robotics in 2025 and beyond. The company is moving towards what it considers the new frontier of artificial intelligence: generalist robotics. As with generative AI, NVIDIA expects to be the backbone of the emerging robotics industry. It will not play directly in this bold new field but will instead support robotics manufacturers with one-stop shop solutions, from software to hardware.
NVIDIA's major contributions to open source robotics include the Isaac Sim platform, the GR00T N1 foundation model, and the Newton physics engine built in collaboration with Google DeepMind and Disney Research.
Husarion
Husarion CEO, Dominik Nowak, believes that “true innovation is possible through democratization of technology.”
The company offers mobile robotics platforms, pre-configured Linux images, ROS tutorials, and a peer-to-peer connectivity solution. Husarion’s open source contributions include the ROSbot mobile robot series, CORE2, Panther, and Husarnet.
PickNik Robotics
PickNik Robotics, arguably the second biggest name in open source robotics, is an unstructured robotics company based in Boulder, Colorado. The company helps developers build and accelerate robotic applications for real-world environments.
The company’s core product, MoveIt, is an open source robotics manipulation framework for developing, testing, and benchmarking robotic applications. It is described as a “killer app for usable robot arms in everyday life.”
PickNik uses the “open-core” business model with a free, open source version of MoveIt intended for hobbyists and small developers, and a premium offering, MoveIt Pro, aimed at commercial ventures. The company believes a premium product on top of the open source library is the best path to sustainability.
Profitability with open source robotics
The open-core business model works well for a lot of companies. However, some companies, like Foxglove Robotics, have found it unsustainable. Alternatives to the open-core model include crowdfunding, dual licensing, software-as-a-service, and professional services.
Andrew Wingate of Evezor, a company that has employed crowdfunding to great success, believes that robotics developers should prioritize sustainability, and if profitability is a requirement, it should be prioritized from the very start. He says commercial users should always contribute back to the project, financially or otherwise.
While open source robotics benefits us all, it isn’t a viable model for every company. Developers should evaluate different licensing options and choose one that works best for their product.