Barcelona-based robotics startup Theker has raised $85 million in a Series A round it claims is the largest ever for a European robotics company. Founded by Carla Gómez Cano and Jiaqiang Ye Zhu, the company is building AI-powered factory robots designed to be reconfigured on the fly — their hands, arms, and overall bodies can be swapped or resized to handle different tasks, from sorting packages to packing clothing to managing bottles and cans in a warehouse. Unlike humanoid robots built around a fixed form factor, such as those from Boston Dynamics, Theker’s machines are built for the messier reality of most factory work, where processes change frequently and one-size-fits-all automation falls short. The round, which comes less than a year after a record-setting seed raise, was led by U.S. venture firm CRV and drew a notable mix of strategic backers. Samsung participated alongside Aglaé Ventures, the investment vehicle tied to LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault. Gómez Cano said Samsung is not yet a customer but that discussions are advanced, and the company would welcome the Korean electronics giant as a customer, supplier, and investor all at once. Inditex, the parent company of Zara, signed on as an early backer, which the founders see as a starting point rather than a ceiling — the broader ambition is to push into heavier industrial manufacturing, where the complexity and scale of manual work is far greater than in retail. Gómez Cano argues that Theker’s go-to-market approach is as distinctive as its hardware. She and Zhu built the company to close deals, not run endless pilot programs, so the team bypasses corporate innovation departments and sells directly to logistics and operations leaders, where budgets are real and buying cycles are shorter. To prove it can deliver, the company has opened a showroom in central Barcelona where potential customers can see the reconfigured robots in action. Whether that combination of modular hardware and a pragmatic sales strategy is enough to convert interest into a scalable industrial business will be the question investors are now watching closely.