Amazon just bought a startup that makes child-sized humanoid robots

Amazon has confirmed that it has acquired Fauna Robotics, a two-year-old startup founded by former Meta and Google engineers who are developing child-sized humanoid robots.

The acquisition was first reported by Bloomberg. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. What we do know is that Fauna employees, including its founders, will be joining Amazon in New York City.

“We are excited about Fauna’s vision of building robots that are capable, safe, and fun for everyone,” an Amazon spokesperson wrote in an email statement. “Combined with Amazon’s robotics expertise and decades of experience earning customers’ trust at home through our retail and appliance businesses, we look forward to innovating new ways to make our customers’ lives better and easier.”

Fauna began shipping its first product, a 59-pound bipedal robot called Sprout, earlier this year to select research and development partners.

This is Amazon’s second robotics acquisition – at least that we know of – this month. Amazon confirmed to TechCrunch earlier this month that it has also acquired Rivr, a Zurich-based autonomous robot startup known for its stair-climbing delivery robot. The terms of that deal were also not disclosed.