Lion Robotics demonstrated its RAIBO quadruped robot walking up hills and flipping over for investors at the Korea Development Bank's headquarters in Seoul on November 6, during a \"KDB NextRound FuturePlay Day\" event. The showcase comes as the KAIST spinout pursues a Series B round of roughly 100 billion won, or about $75.4 million, that would value the company near 700 billion won ($527.7 million).
CEO Hwangbo Jemin told attendees the company trains RAIBO's control system through reinforcement learning on its own simulation platform, and that the robot completed the Sangju Marathon — 42.195 kilometers — in November 2024 without recharging. Lion Robotics has since extended the platform's endurance to roughly eight hours per charge by bringing motors and reducers in-house, a run time the company says is about double that of Unitree's B2 quadruped.
Defense money chasing legged robots
Hanwha Group, the South Korean defense and industrial conglomerate, is reportedly negotiating a roughly $50 million investment as part of the Series B, according to prior reporting cited alongside the funding round. Lion Robotics has already run proof-of-concept trials with the South Korean military this year, with about ten units used in training exercises, and the company has said it obtained the country's first combat-trial certification for a multi-legged robot.
The interest from Hanwha fits a broader pattern: South Korea's defense establishment has been funding legged robots as scouting and logistics platforms, a race that also includes Switzerland's ANYbotics and China's Unitree internationally. Founded in October 2023, Lion Robotics has moved from seed funding to a Series A of 23 billion won in under two years, a pace that reflects how quickly Korean investors are now pricing quadruped robotics compared with just two or three years ago.
What the Series B needs to prove
The round has not closed, and Hanwha's participation has not been confirmed by either company directly. Lion Robotics says the new capital would fund mass-production facilities, new robot models and international expansion — the stage where many quadruped makers have struggled to convert flashy demonstrations into recurring military or industrial contracts. Whether Hanwha's backing materializes, and at what final valuation, should become clear in the coming weeks.