Furhat Robotics
Furhat Robotics is a Stockholm company that makes Furhat, a social robot head with a back-projected, animated face that can talk, listen and show expressions. It was founded in 2014 as a spin-off from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology by Samer Al Moubayed, its chief executive, together with Preben Wik, Jonas Beskow and Gabriel Skantze; it grew from Al Moubayed's doctoral research in speech technology and AI. Because Furhat's face is projected from inside the head, it can change its appearance and show detailed expressions, and it is used for research, education, customer service and healthcare. In January 2022 Furhat acquired US-based Misty Robotics, adding the Misty II mobile social robot for education and healthcare. The company raised a US$2.5 million seed round from Balderton Capital and LocalGlobe in September 2017, was a finalist at the SXSW Interactive Innovation Awards and won a Netexplo award in 2019, and counts customers such as Disney, Intel and Honda.
💡Notable Achievement: Furhat pioneered the rear-projected facial robotics architecture, allowing the robot to morph dynamically into diverse human faces, ages, and languages instantly while maintaining realistic three-dimensional facial depth and gaze tracking.
What Does Furhat Robotics Do?
Furhat Robotics is the creator of the world's most expressive social robot. By projecting realistic, customizable facial animations from inside an anthropomorphic translucent mask, Furhat delivers unprecedented social presence, eye contact, and emotional connection without uncanny mechanical facial delays.
“Furhat Robotics creates expressive conversational social robot heads for natural, trustworthy human-machine communication.”
Customizable Projected Faces
Instantly alter gender, ethnicity, age, and character persona on a single hardware unit.
Natural Social Presence
Combines dynamic 3-DoF neck mechanics with sub-second gaze shifts for lifelike interaction.
Enterprise Conversational AI
Natively integrates leading LLMs and voice models with full conversational turn-taking.
What Can Furhat Robotics Robots Actually Do?
Cross-portfolio operational capabilities, manipulation tasks, and environmental competencies
Social robotics heads, conversational development SDKs, and companion robot platforms (Misty II).
Conversational Social Presence
Full-duplex multilingual dialogue with human-like eye contact.
Developer Robotics Platform
Modular mobile platform for institutional and software testing.
Furhat Robotics Robots
Showing 1 Humanoid Robots of 1 total model
Furhat
Manufactured by Furhat Robotics
The Furhat humanoid robot by Furhat Robotics is a social robotics platform optimized for human-robot interaction, featuring a highly expressive back-projected face with customizable masks for lifelike facial animations including smiling, nodding, frowning, and blinking. Mounted on a dynamic 3-DOF head with pan/tilt/roll motion driven by high-speed servos, it supports natural conversations through advanced speech recognition in over 40 languages, text-to-speech synthesis with lip-syncing, and multimodal sensing via RGB camera for user tracking up to 10 people and microphone arrays for far-field audio up to 5m. Designed for stationary desk-top use, Furhat excels in customer service, education, healthcare, and research, enabling experiments in conversational AI, proxemics, and nonverbal cues with low-latency responses under 200ms. Its modular design includes Intel Core i5 compute, WiFi/Ethernet connectivity, and gesture libraries for immersive, human-like engagement without bipedal mobility.
Furhat Robotics Software & AI Ecosystem
Developer platforms, fleet management portals, autonomy intelligence, and enterprise integrations
FurhatOS
Conversational HRI Operating System
Complete runtime managing face projection, speech synthesis, microphone beamforming, and emotion parameters.
Furhat Robotics Timeline & Milestones
Evolutionary history, landmark prototypes, major acquisitions, and commercial roadmap
Furhat Robotics founded as a KTH spin-off
Samer Al Moubayed, Preben Wik, Jonas Beskow and Gabriel Skantze found Furhat Robotics in Stockholm as a spin-off from KTH.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
$2.5 million seed round
Furhat raises a US$2.5 million seed round from Balderton Capital and LocalGlobe.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
SXSW finalist and Netexplo award
Furhat is a finalist at the SXSW Interactive Innovation Awards and receives a Netexplo Innovation Award.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Acquires Misty Robotics
Furhat Robotics acquires US-based Misty Robotics, maker of the Misty II mobile social robot.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Furhat Robotics Competitors by Category
Direct industry rivals grouped by specific robotics domain
What Makes Furhat Robotics Different?
Editorial AnalysisOrigin of Bots objective strategic assessment, engineering moats, and commercial hurdles
Key Strengths & Moats
- ✓Proven commercial reliability across hundreds of global research and commercial installations
- ✓Unrivaled facial customizability without mechanical wear
Core Strategic Focus
Expanding multimodal AI conversational capabilities and healthcare screening pilots.
Road Ahead & Challenges
- •Lack of robotic arms or mobile base for physical manipulation tasks
Furhat Robotics vs Key Competitors
Strategic capability matrix across platform categories, commercial readiness, and target markets
Facial Technology
- Furhat (Furhat Robotics)
- 3D Internal Projection
- Ameca (Engineered Arts)
- Motorized Synthetic Skin
- Sophia (Hanson)
- Frubber Skin Actuators
- Pepper (SoftBank)
- Tablet Screen Face
Primary Use
- Furhat (Furhat Robotics)
- Conversational AI training, customer support
- Ameca (Engineered Arts)
- Human-robot interaction studies
- Sophia (Hanson)
- University research, AI and robotics education
- Pepper (SoftBank)
- Customer service, reception
Mobility
- Furhat (Furhat Robotics)
- Tabletop Head/Bust
- Ameca (Engineered Arts)
- Stationary Upper Body
- Sophia (Hanson)
- Wheeled/Stationary
- Pepper (SoftBank)
- Omnidirectional Wheeled Base
| Strategic Dimension | Furhat (Furhat Robotics) | Ameca (Engineered Arts) | Sophia (Hanson) | Pepper (SoftBank) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Facial Technology | 3D Internal Projection | Motorized Synthetic Skin | Frubber Skin Actuators | Tablet Screen Face |
| Primary Use | Conversational AI training, customer support | Human-robot interaction studies | University research, AI and robotics education | Customer service, reception |
| Mobility | Tabletop Head/Bust | Stationary Upper Body | Wheeled/Stationary | Omnidirectional Wheeled Base |
Corporate Ecosystem & Ownership Structure
Parent company relationships, historical acquisitions, and global operating facilities
Misty Robotics
US-based developer of the Misty II personal robot platform acquired by Furhat in 2022.
Ownership & Acquisition History
US-based developer of the Misty II personal robot platform acquired by Furhat in 2022.
Global Facilities & Operating Hubs
Furhat Robotics Headquarters
HQStockholm, Stockholm County, Sweden
Articles & Industry News
Showing 1 recent article and news updates about Furhat Robotics
Frequently Asked Questions
8 AnswersVerified answers, company specifications, and deployment details about Furhat Robotics
What is Furhat Robotics?
Furhat Robotics is a Stockholm company, founded in 2014, that makes Furhat, a social robot head with a back-projected, animated face for natural conversation.
Who founded Furhat Robotics?
Furhat Robotics was founded in 2014 by Samer Al Moubayed, its chief executive, with Preben Wik, Jonas Beskow and Gabriel Skantze, as a spin-off from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
What is the Furhat robot?
Furhat is a social robot head whose animated face is projected from inside onto a mask. It can talk, listen, make eye contact and show expressions, and its face can be changed to show different characters.
What is the Furhat robot used for?
Furhat is used for research, education, customer service and healthcare, wherever natural face-to-face conversation with a machine is useful, such as studies of human-robot interaction.
What is Misty II?
Misty II is a mobile social robot for education and healthcare. Furhat Robotics added it to its products when it acquired US-based Misty Robotics in January 2022.
Who has invested in Furhat Robotics?
Furhat raised a US$2.5 million seed round in September 2017 from Balderton Capital and LocalGlobe, and has also been backed by Qualgro.
Which companies use Furhat?
By 2017 Furhat had about 50 customers, including Disney, Intel and Honda, and its robots are now used in Sweden, the UK, Europe, Japan and the Middle East.
How much does the Furhat robot cost?
Furhat Robotics does not publish a fixed list price on its main product pages. Pricing depends on the package and use case, so buyers need to contact the company.
Verified Data & Editorial Assurance
Compiled from verified corporate filings, official Furhat Robotics datasheets, and robotics engineering registries. Information has been verified against official manufacturer documentation. For commercial procurement or proprietary integrations, contact the manufacturer directly.