K-Scale K-Bot
Open-source USD 8,999 humanoid whose maker ran out of money weeks after the first deliveries.
K-Scale Labs, a Y Combinator-backed Palo Alto start-up led by Benjamin Bolte, opened pre-orders for the K-Bot at USD 8,999 for the first 100 Founder's Edition buyers and delivered its first units on 2025-09-26. On 2025-11-04 Bolte told customers the company had less than a month of runway, cancelled all pre-orders, promised refunds and released the K-Bot and Zeroth Bot designs under non-commercial open licences.
Our verdict
A cautionary tale about hardware economics: the open-source designs live on, the company and the preorders do not.
Video
K-Scale Labs
K-Scale Labs
K-Scale Labs
Availability
No public price
Pre-orders cancelled and deposits refunded (2025-11).
as of 2025-11 · Source
$8,999
Former pre-order price for Founder's Edition (first 100 buyers); no longer sold.
as of 2025-11 · Source
No public price
Never offered.
as of 2025-11
Timeline
Seed round of about USD 4M at roughly USD 50M valuation reported (secondary source).
First K-Bot Founder's Edition units delivered; second batch sold out.
CEO Benjamin Bolte tells customers the company has under a month of runway, cancels all K-Bot pre-orders, refunds deposits and releases K-Bot and Zeroth Bot IP (hardware CERN-OHL-S-2.0, software MIT).
Promises
Specs
- Height
- about 120 (four feet) cm
Manufacturer claim - Weight
- about 35 (77 lb) kg
Manufacturer claim
Sources
- K-Scale Labs cancels K-Bot orders, open-sources all IP after funding fails Humanoids Daily · Oct 31, 2026
- Your Personal Open-Source Humanoid Robot for $8,999 - K-Scale Labs AI Engineer · Oct 31, 2026
- K-Scale Labs AIWiki · Oct 31, 2026
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