The money chasing artificial intelligence has mostly poured into software that lives on servers. A new fund wants to change that equation by backing AI that actually touches the physical world.
On June 16, 2026, Pegasus Tech Ventures announced a JPY 10 billion (US $60M) Corporate Venture Capital fund in partnership with CYBERDYNE, Inc. The vehicle is built to invest in startups working on robotics, physical AI, healthcare, automation, and intelligent systems — the kind of technology that turns algorithms into motion, manipulation and real-world decision-making.
The distinction matters. Physical AI refers to systems that perceive their surroundings, reason about them and then act through hardware: robotic arms on a factory line, autonomous machines in a warehouse, or assistive devices that support human movement. Unlike a chatbot, these systems fail loudly and expensively when the intelligence isn’t up to the job, which is exactly why fresh capital and specialist partners are flowing into the space.
CYBERDYNE brings more than a checkbook to the arrangement. The company is best known for cybernic technology and wearable robotics in the medical and rehabilitation fields, so its involvement signals a clear tilt toward healthcare and human-augmenting automation alongside industrial robots. For portfolio companies, that means access to a partner that has already navigated the brutal path from prototype to certified, deployable hardware.
Pegasus Tech Ventures, for its part, runs a global network of corporate-backed funds and has a track record of connecting young companies with large industrial partners hunting for the next wave of technology. Pairing that reach with CYBERDYNE’s domain expertise is the whole point: startups get capital, distribution channels and a strategic ally that understands the regulatory and engineering headaches of shipping physical products.
What the fund is chasing:
- Robotics — autonomous and semi-autonomous machines for industrial and consumer applications
- Physical AI — systems that sense, reason and act in the real world
- Healthcare — a natural fit given CYBERDYNE’s medical robotics heritage
- Automation — technology aimed at factories, logistics and beyond
- Intelligent systems — the software-hardware glue that ties it all together
The timing is telling. As generative AI matures, investors are increasingly asking what comes after the screen — and the answer, more and more, is hardware that can do something useful in the physical world. A US $60M fund won’t single-handedly reshape the robotics industry, but a corporate CVC structure with a manufacturing-savvy partner is a serious signal that physical AI has graduated from research curiosity to fundable business.
For founders building robots, wearables and automation platforms, it’s one more door worth knocking on.
