Robotic Hands, An Artificial Retina Developed In Space, A GenAI Sticker Printer For Kids, And More

This is a monthly column that runs down five interesting startup funding deals every month that may have flown under the radar. Check out our September entry here.

Many months, this column is dominated by AI-related startups of the software variety. That’s not too surprising, given that those companies receive the bulk of venture funding these days.

Still, for this month’s edition of 5 Interesting Startup Deals, all the funded companies that caught our eye were hardware-centric, from a medical device for at-home acne treatment, to an artificial retina developed aboard the International Space Station. Here’s a closer look.

$25M for in-home injectable acne care

Just a few short years ago, the idea that one would get a prescription without ever stepping into a doctor’s office, then administer said treatment oneself, at home, by injecting oneself with a needle seemed … far-flung, to say the least.

But that was then, and this is now. In 2025, millions of Americans have grown accustomed to getting prescriptions for injectable medications such as Ozempic online, with a few clicks of a button, and then administering those treatments to themselves in the comfort of their own homes.

One of the platforms that led the way in online healthcare is Hims & Hers, which started in 2017 by prescribing and selling men’s products such as generic Viagra and hair-loss treatments online, and now operates a fully fledged telehealth network offering everything from birth control medications to GLP-1 weight-loss drugs.

Now, an alumnus of Hims has started a similar business, but for acne care. Hims & Hers co-founder Jack Abraham’s new startup, Indomo, recently emerged from stealth with $25 million in funding. The startup, which is still in clinical trials, says it aims to be the first and only company to bring prescription corticosteroid injections for acne straight to consumers in their homes, via its ClearPen microneedle device.

“ClearPen will be the first big innovation in acne care since Accutane,” Abraham, who also serves as managing partner at Atomic, said in a statement. “For too long, people have had to choose between ineffective surface treatments or waiting weeks for a dermatologist. ClearPen will provide patients instant access to a corticosteroid microneedle injection right in their bathroom cabinet.”

Along with Atomic, investors in Indomo include Foresite Capital and Polaris Partners. The company said it will use its capital to support Phase 2 clinical trials and the development of its device platform. Long-term, it aims to use its ClearPen technology to address other skin conditions beyond acne.

“We look for teams that marry scientific rigor with practical impact,” Foresite partner Hyung Chun said in a statement. “Indomo applies proven dermatology science in an accessible, patient-friendly format — with an emphasis on precision and patient safety during development. That combination is rare.”

Related Crunchbase query: Venture Funding To Telehealth Startups

Just the hands, please: $16M for humanoid robotic limbs

If you’ve been following the robotics sector, you’re likely aware that there’s something of an ongoing debate in the industry: To be humanoid, or not to be humanoid?

For Zurich-based Mimic Robotics, the answer is: Both, sort of.

The Swiss company earlier this month announced $16 million in new funding to develop its industrial robotic limbs, which sport human-like hands and are designed to sit on a rolling table top in a factory or retail setting.

“Humanoids are exciting, but there aren’t many industrial scenarios where the full-body form factor truly adds value,” Stephan-Daniel Gravert, co-founder and CPO at Mimic, said in a statement. “Our approach pairs AI-driven dexterous robotic hands with proven, off-the-shelf robot arms to deliver the same capabilities in a way that is much simpler, more reliable and rapidly deployable.”

That’s a similar approach to MicroFactory, a San Francisco-based startup that we featured in last month’s edition of this column. That company, too, eschewed the full-body bot approach to focus only on the appendages needed for a particular task, though the Bay Area company’s robotic arms featured various tool attachments rather than humanoid hands and fingers.

Mimic has raised $20.8 million to date, per Crunchbase. Its latest round was led by Elaia, alongside Speedinvest. Other investors in what the company described as a “heavily oversubscribed” seed round were Founderful, 1st kind, 10x Founders, 2100 Ventures and Sequoia Scout.

Overall, robotics funding — for both humanoid and non-humanoid designs — has been on a tear this year, Crunchbase data shows. In fact, investment to robotics-related startups in 2025 is on track to hit the highest total since 2021 as companies including Figure and The Bot Co. raise large rounds.

Related Crunchbase query: Robotics Startup Funding

$7M for a blindness treatment developed in low-earth orbit

It takes a lot for a funding round to land on this list, given the steady flow of intriguing deals that cross our desk in any given month. But a startup making artificial retinas aboard the International Space Station certainly crosses that high bar.

LambdaVision is a startup working on developing an artificial retina in the microgravity environment on the ISS’ orbiting laboratory. The Farmington, Connecticut-based company earlier this month closed a $7 million seed funding round to continue work on developing a protein-based artificial retina for people with retinal degenerative diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration, which cause partial or complete blindness for millions of people worldwide every year.

The startup is working to develop highly uniform, 200-layer protein thin films for artificial retinas in the microgravity environment aboard the ISS, since the process is challenging to do on Earth, according to the company. Its new funding will be used to advance preclinical development and scale up space-enabled manufacturing of the retina.

“The round underscores the growing recognition of the potential for space-based biomanufacturing to accelerate the development of life-changing therapies on Earth,” LambdaVision CEO Nicole Wagner said in a statement. “This seed round funding will help bring us closer to clinical trials and continue to pioneer scalable production of our artificial retina, including manufacturing techniques implemented in low-Earth orbit.”

Its latest funding was co-led by Seven Seven Six and Aurelia Foundry with support from Seraphim Space. “We’re excited to support their journey as they scale their microgravity manufacturing platform toward clinical impact,” Rob Desborough, partner at space-tech focused investor Seraphim Space, said in a statement.

The company has now raised $13.7 million to date, according to Crunchbase, including a $5 million grant from NASA in 2020.

Related Crunchbase query: Biotech Venture Funding 2025

$7M for AI-generated stickers for kids

Stickerbox says it got its start just two months ago when co-founder Robert Whitney’s 4-year-old son asked: “Can we make our own coloring sheets?”

That question prompted Whitney, an alumnus of Anthropic, to join co-founder and CEO Arun Gupta (formerly of Grailed) to start Stickerbox, a toy company that claims it’s developed the first-ever voice-powered AI creativity tool for kids.

The idea was apparently so compelling that the New York-based startup quickly secured $7 million in seed funding from Maveron, AI2 Incubator, Matthew Brezina and tennis legend Serena Williams’ Serena Ventures.

The Stickerbox is pretty much like what it sounds like: A cube that prints stickers. Children deliver prompts for images with their voices. Importantly, the company says, the box doesn’t collect voice data and doesn’t have a camera.

Like many other popular techie toys these days, including the Yoto and Toniebox audio players, Stickerbox also emphasizes that while it’s tech-enabled, it’s screen free, meaning it doesn’t come with many of the drawbacks associated with excess screentime for children’s developing brains.

Related Crunchbase query: Venture Funding To Toy Startups

$6.9M for lab-made rare metal alternatives

Rare-earth minerals are essential inputs for everything from smartphones to electric vehicle motors to wind turbines and defense systems.

But, despite their name, this group of 17 closely related elements are not so much geologically scarce as they are supply-constrained. That’s due to both the difficulty and expense of extraction and China’s near-monopoly on their production and processing. China’s dominance has also made rare earths a geopolitical flashpoint and a critical vulnerability for industries and governments worldwide.

So when a startup that claims to be developing lab-grown alternatives to rare metals enters the scene, we take a closer look. Oxford, U.K.-based Milvus Advanced said last month that it has raised $6.9 million in seed funding to “recreate Earth’s rarest metals from abundant elements and scale commercialization across clean energy, transport, electronics, and chemical manufacturing.”

The company said it’s working to design the next generation of low-cost nanomaterials that replace some of the world’s most scarce and strategic materials in clean energy, catalysis and optoelectronics. Its nanoalloys and membranes are currently being tested in partnership with global electrolyser OEMs and chemical manufacturers.

Milvus’ funding was led by Hoxton Ventures, with LQD Ventures, Übermorgen Ventures, Tuesday Capital, Mark Leslie Enterprises, van Den Bosch Dynasty Fund, Bluebirds, MD One Ventures, EQt Foundation and returning investor Lowercarbon Capital also participating.

Rare-earth minerals are an area of intense interest to startup investors. In the past few quarters, a growing roster of venture-backed companies has secured funding for areas including battery and magnet recycling, rare earth-focused mining technology, and even extracting materials from space, Crunchbase data shows.