Tangent Robotics has raised $4.5 million in pre-seed funding led by Fly Ventures, with Toyota Ventures as co-lead. Logos Fund and Sparked Ventures also participated in the round.
Founded in 2025 by Pedro Piacenza, Matei Ciocarlie and Ioannis Kymissis, Tangent Robotics is a New York City-based robotics startup spun out of Columbia Engineering’s Robotic Manipulation and Mobility Lab. Columbia Technology Ventures also identifies all three as co-founders of the company.
Tangent Robotics is developing a fine motor skill layer for robotic manipulation by combining robot hand design, touch sensing and motor learning. Its technology is intended to give robots the dexterity required for complex, high-precision physical tasks.
The company’s systems target tasks including assembly, threading, part sequencing, wiring and connector mating, gasket seating, snap fitting and gear meshing. Its touch sensors use light for touch transduction, while its motor-learning approach combines human fingertip tracking with visual and tactile data to train autonomous manipulation policies.
Tangent Robotics said it will use the funding to further develop skilled robotic manipulation capabilities spanning hand hardware, touch sensing and motor learning, with an initial focus on deployment in demanding manufacturing environments.
The founding team’s work at Columbia included robotic touch sensing, robot-hand development and manipulation research. Tangent Robotics said the team’s earlier work included the DISCO robot finger, hands designed for NASA’s Assistive Free Flyer robots, and research on robotic in-hand dexterity.
