Tokyo store robot maker MUSE raises 1.75 billion yen, led by ALPHA

Tokyo store robot maker MUSE raises 1.75 billion yen, led by ALPHA

5 November 2026: MUSE, a Tokyo company that builds a robot for supermarkets, home centres and drugstores, has raised 1.75 billion yen from 15 companies. ALPHA, a new investor, led the round, and MUSE says the money will take it into full-scale production and further into the United States.

Not yet independently verified. The company's own release is the only source. It names 10 of the 15 investors, gives no round name or valuation, and gives no store count for Armo, so its deployment claims are unchecked. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

Who put the money in

The release counts corporate investors, venture firms and financial institutions among the 15 and names ten of them. Six are existing backers adding to their stakes: Incubate Fund, XTech Ventures, Spiral Capital, Toshiba Tec, Canal Ventures and YMFG Capital. Alongside ALPHA, the new names are Rakuten Capital, Gogin Capital and New Commerce Ventures.

Toshiba Tec's presence is the one a retailer may notice, because the company describes MUSE as a strategic partner. 鳥井 敦, head of its CVC office, said the extra investment will speed up that work together. MUSE gives no round name.

What Armo does in a store

Armo is pitched as one machine for several jobs that usually need separate handling: restocking shelves, moving goods through the store for online grocery orders, spotting out-of-stock items, checking displays, supporting promotions and guiding customers. It also records shelf and sales floor conditions, which feed a cloud service called Eureka Platform.

CEO Yasutaka Kasagi calls the round "本格的な成長フェーズへと踏み出す重要な転換点", an important turning point as MUSE steps into a full growth phase. The labour shortage is the core of the case: ALPHA general partner 立岡 恵介 points to it directly, and says starting from restocking transport and extending to promotions and floor management with one unit has large potential.

Three uses for the money

MUSE lists these plans for the funds:

• Manufacturing: mass production with outside manufacturing partners, plus stronger quality assurance and maintenance.
• United States: sales, deployment support and maintenance through its subsidiary MUSE US, aimed at supermarkets and home centres.
• Software: work on autonomous navigation, recognition and decision making, and more features for Eureka Platform.

The release says Armo is being rolled out at major Japanese retailers and that operation has begun in a real store in the United States. A photo caption places one deployment at Foodcellar Market in Long Island City, New York. It offers no store count, unit price or performance data.

What a retailer should ask

Founded in April 2022 and based in Hatchobori, Chuo-ku, MUSE is now moving to mass production with outside partners. A buyer considering it should ask who will maintain the machines locally, what the Eureka data contract covers, and how the outsourced production will be quality checked.

Those questions apply to every maker of this type of machine. We list 62 robot makers, now including MUSE, and 25 robotics integrators.

Related on TrustList:

• China drafts a unique ID code for every robot, comments open to 5 December
• IFR: professional service robot sales climb 24% as logistics leads
• UBTECH names Terra Robotics its DACH distributor for Walker S2 humanoids

Sources

• MUSE Inc. via PR TIMES: funding release, 5 November 2026, 09:00 JST, 5 November 2026