Summary
Agility Robotics builds Digit, a bipedal mobile manipulation robot designed to move totes, packages, and materials in warehouses, distribution centers, and manufacturing plants. The company is one of the few humanoid robotics firms with verified, ongoing commercial deployments rather than only pilots or demonstrations, with Digit units running production shifts at GXO Logistics and Schaeffler Group facilities.
Company Story
Agility Robotics was spun out of Oregon State University’s Dynamic Robotics Laboratory in 2015 by Jonathan Hurst, Damion Shelton, and Mikhail Jones. Hurst had spent years at Oregon State researching the physics of dynamic bipedal locomotion, work that produced ATRIAS, a research robot that demonstrated stable outdoor walking and running (Agility Robotics Stock analysis). Shelton, a Carnegie Mellon robotics Ph.D. who had previously co-founded and exited the 3D imaging startup threeRivers 3D, joined as CEO, while Jones, Hurst’s graduate student, had led development of ATRIAS’s control software.
The company’s first commercial product, Cassie, was a legless-upper-body bipedal robot sold as a research platform beginning in 2016. Cassie later set the Guinness World Record for the fastest 100-meter dash by a bipedal robot, demonstrating the underlying locomotion technology before Agility added a torso, arms, and perception systems to create Digit, a full humanoid designed for material handling (Agility Robotics Stock analysis).
In March 2024, Agility hired Peggy Johnson, former Microsoft executive vice president of business development and former Magic Leap CEO, to lead commercial scaling as CEO. Co-founder Damion Shelton transitioned to President, and Hurst became Chief Robot Officer (Agility Robotics CEO announcement). In 2026, Agility announced plans to go public through a merger with special-purpose acquisition company Churchill Capital Corp XI at an implied valuation of roughly $2.5 billion (Agility Robotics SPAC announcement; The Robot Report).
Founders
Jonathan Hurst co-founded Agility after building the scientific foundation for dynamic bipedal locomotion at Oregon State University’s Dynamic Robotics Lab. He now serves as Chief Robot Officer, focused on the company’s underlying robot control technology.
Damion Shelton served as CEO from Agility’s founding in 2015 until March 2024, when he transitioned to President as Peggy Johnson took over as CEO. Shelton previously co-founded and exited the 3D imaging company threeRivers 3D and holds a robotics Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University.
Mikhail Jones, Hurst’s graduate student at Oregon State, led development of the control software for the ATRIAS research robot, which became the technical foundation for Cassie and later Digit.
Products
Digit is Agility’s flagship product, described by the company as a Mobile Manipulation Robot (MMR): a human-scale bipedal robot with a torso, arms, and perception systems built to navigate spaces designed for people and perform repetitive material handling tasks such as moving totes, unloading trailers, and transferring goods between conveyors and automated storage systems (IPO Club company profile).
Alongside the robot hardware, Agility operates Agility Arc, a cloud-based automation platform used to deploy, orchestrate, and monitor fleets of Digit robots across customer facilities, integrating with existing warehouse execution and automated-storage systems (GXO announcement).
To support scaled production, Agility built RoboFab, a dedicated manufacturing facility the company states can produce up to 10,000 Digit units annually, with roughly 75 percent of components sourced domestically in the United States (Interesting Engineering).
Funding
Agility has raised approximately $641 million in private funding across multiple rounds. A $150 million Series B closed in April 2022, led by DCVC and Playground Global with participation from Amazon’s Industrial Innovation Fund. The company’s largest round to date, a $400 million Series C, closed in March 2025 at a post-money valuation of approximately $2.1 billion, with SoftBank joining existing investors DCVC, Playground Global, Amazon’s Industrial Innovation Fund, and NVentures, Nvidia’s venture arm (Agility Robotics Stock analysis).
Schaeffler Group, a German motion-technology and automotive supplier, made a minority equity investment in Agility alongside its commercial deployment agreement, aligning Agility’s investor base with several of its commercial customers (Contrary Research).
Partnerships
GXO Logistics became Agility’s first commercial customer, signing a multi-year Robots-as-a-Service agreement in mid-2024 following a late-2023 proof-of-concept pilot. GXO describes the deal as the logistics industry’s first formal commercial deployment of humanoid robots, with Digit units moving totes between autonomous mobile robots and conveyors at a Spanx facility in Flowery Branch, Georgia. As of late 2025, GXO reported the deployment had surpassed 100,000 totes moved (GXO announcement).
Schaeffler Group deploys Digit at its Cheraw, South Carolina plant, running factory shifts since early 2025. Amazon has tested Digit at its Sumner, Washington fulfillment center since October 2023, focused initially on tote recycling and consolidation workflows, though Amazon has not disclosed a scaled commercial deployment. Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada signed a commercial agreement in February 2026 following a successful pilot, and Mercado Libre, Latin America’s largest e-commerce platform, signed a separate commercial agreement in late 2025 (Contrary Research).
Agility has also partnered with Nvidia on robot safety systems, becoming the first company to integrate Nvidia’s Halos Core safety software and IGX Thor industrial computing platform into a commercial humanoid robot (Interesting Engineering).
Timeline
- 2015: Agility Robotics was founded as a spin-off from Oregon State University’s Dynamic Robotics Laboratory.
- 2016: Cassie, Agility’s first bipedal research robot, was released and later set a Guinness World Record for the fastest 100-meter dash by a bipedal robot.
- 2023: Amazon began testing Digit at its Sumner, Washington fulfillment center.
- March 2024: Peggy Johnson was appointed CEO; co-founder Damion Shelton transitioned to President.
- June 2024: GXO Logistics signed a multi-year Robots-as-a-Service agreement, described as the industry’s first commercial humanoid robot deployment.
- November 2024: Schaeffler Group made a minority investment and began deploying Digit at its Cheraw, South Carolina plant.
- March 2025: Agility closed a $400 million Series C round at approximately a $2.1 billion post-money valuation.
- February 2026: Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada signed a commercial deployment agreement.
- 2026: Agility announced a planned SPAC merger with Churchill Capital Corp XI valuing the combined company at approximately $2.5 billion.
Market Context
Agility competes most directly with other humanoid and mobile-manipulation robotics companies pursuing warehouse and logistics automation, including Figure AI, Apptronik, and Sanctuary AI, as well as established warehouse automation vendors offering fixed or wheeled robotic systems. Agility’s public differentiation is verified, ongoing commercial revenue: independent deployment trackers identify its GXO and Schaeffler sites as among the only publicly confirmed high-throughput, multi-shift humanoid robot deployments in the industry, as opposed to demonstrations or short pilots (New Market Pitch deployment tracker).
Source Notes
This profile draws on Agility’s own press releases, GXO’s commercial announcement, third-party financial research from Contrary Research and TSG Invest, and reporting from The Robot Report and Interesting Engineering. Specific customer deployment scale, unit economics, and the outcome of the announced SPAC merger should be re-verified as new primary disclosures become available, particularly around the company’s transition to public-company reporting.