Budapest-based startup Allonic has raised $7.2 million in pre-seed funding to commercialize a manufacturing process that builds robotic limbs and end effectors by weaving fibers around a skeletal core rather than assembling individual mechanical parts. The round, led by Visionaries Club with backing from Day One Capital, is reported to be the largest pre-seed raise in Hungarian startup history.
Most advanced robots are still assembled by hand from bearings, screws, cables, and rigid joints. That process is slow and expensive. It also limits how quickly designers can iterate on new configurations. Allonic’s approach, called 3D Tissue Braiding, replaces manual assembly with a continuous automated operation that wraps fine fibers, elastics, wiring, and sensing elements directly over bone-like structural components in a single run.
The method draws on the same principle that gives rope its strength: structure rather than material rigidity. A robotic finger, for example, is built from a small number of rigid skeletal pieces held together by hundreds of braided fibers that anchor into the structure itself, similar to connective tissue in a human hand. The result is hardware that is compliant enough to be safe around people, yet strong enough for industrial tasks.
Allonic says the process can produce advanced robotic components in minutes from a digital design file, compared with weeks under conventional fabrication. The company’s software translates high-level mechanical designs into production code automatically — a workflow it compares to slicing in 3D printing.
Co-founder and CEO Benedek Tasi said the platform changes how teams can approach robotic design. “Being able to go from idea to physical robot in minutes instead of weeks fundamentally changes how we can think about robotics design,” Tasi said.
The company has already completed a pilot project in electronics manufacturing, targeting tasks where conventional industrial robots lack the required dexterity, but general-purpose humanoid platforms remain too costly to deploy at scale. Allonic reports inbound interest from both the humanoid robotics sector and large consumer technology companies in the United States.
Angel investors in the round include individuals from OpenAI, Hugging Face, ETH Zurich, and Northwestern University. The capital will fund further development of the braiding platform, team expansion, and additional pilot deployments with industrial partners.
Source: TNW
