Artem Sokolov is an entrepreneur and investor, and the founder of Humanoid, a UK-based robotics company established in 2024. The company develops industrial humanoid robots designed for real-world deployment rather than laboratory demonstrations. The project is rooted in Sokolov's personal experience with large-scale manufacturing and focuses on taking over heavy, repetitive work to improve working conditions and help address structural labor shortages.
Artem Sokolov's path into technology did not begin with software or artificial intelligence. It began much earlier, inside a jewelry factory. His grandparents spent their working lives in production, repeating the same manual tasks thousands of times. As a child, he observed how monotonous labor shaped not only working conditions, but entire lives limited to a single production environment.
Years later, this early experience gained practical scale. After taking over a family jewelry business, Sokolov encountered the same type of work at an industrial level. Around 2,000 people were involved in preparing jewelry models and performing routine production operations every day. The company eventually grew into a large manufacturing business with a capitalization of approximately $1 billion. The question he faced was no longer abstract: how long could such work remain sustainable without structural change?
That question led to two consecutive decisions. First, to push the family business beyond its traditional operating model through digital tools and formalized processes. Second, rather than continuing to build within a familiar industry, to start again from zero in international technology by founding Humanoid.
How Artem Sokolov Built His Entrepreneurial Mindset Across Different Industries
What distinguishes Sokolovis a consistent method for evaluating work, independent of sector. This logic shaped his decision to leave manufacturing rather than deepen his position within it. Sokolov addressed structural inefficiencies in a legacy business and chose to test whether the same approach could work in a far more competitive and uncertain environment.
Artem Sokolov's entrepreneur interest in robotics emerged directly from prolonged exposure to repetitive human labor. Observations made during childhood and later confirmed at industrial scale led to a specific conclusion: automation is most effective when it removes routine and physically demanding tasks from people.
Machines are intended to absorb work that must be done continuously, safely, and without fatigue. The problem remained the same across industries; only the tools changed.
How Artem Sokolov in Humanoid Focuses on Real-World Deployment
Humanoid was founded in response to these constraints. The company mainly targets environments where repetitive or hazardous tasks are common: logistics, warehousing, retail, and industrial facilities. Robots could be an excellent support tool in each of these industries, and Sokolov decided to take advantage of the opportunity to meet this need.
In 2025, this approach translated into measurable results. Artem Sokolov's Humanoid launched two alpha versions of its HMND 01 platform: a wheeled humanoid for industrial use and a bipedal robot. The wheeled version was built in seven months; the bipedal version in five, compared with an industry average of 18–24 months. The bipedal robot achieved stable walking within 48 hours after final assembly. One of the company's first proof-of-concept deployments was a near-production trial at a Schaeffler plant in Germany.
The Market Context Behind Artem Sokolov's Robotics Focus
The timing of this move aligned with a broader shift in humanoid robotics. In 2025, global investment in the sector exceeded $4 billion.
Real deployments began to replace promotional demos. At BMW's Spartanburg plant, humanoid robots completed more than 1,250 hours of work over 11 months, handling over 90,000 parts and contributing to the production of more than 30,000 vehicles. Market demand increasingly favors robots that perform sustained work inside existing environments.
For Artem Sokolov as an entrepreneur, robotics is a response to structural labor constraints rather than a short-term efficiency tool. By mid-2024, labor shortages in the United States reached approximately 1.5 million workers, with similar gaps emerging across Europe. Demographics intensify the issue: by 2050, one in six people globally will be over the age of 65.
Against this backdrop, humanoid robots are treated as capacity infrastructure—operating in human-centric environments, sustaining long shifts and reducing injury risk in physically demanding roles. The aim is continuity of essential work rather than disruption of employment.
Rather than pursuing technology for its own sake, the path of Artem Sokolov reflects a pragmatic response to a problem observed over decades: how work is done, who does it, and what happens when human capacity reaches its limits.
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