Czech billionaire buys Alza humanoid robot for a million crowns

Czech online retailer Alza has started selling "grown-up" Unitree H2 humanoid robots, standing 180 cm tall and weighing 70 kg, priced at up to 1.6 million crowns. One of its first buyers was Ivo Valenta — number 55 on the list of the richest Czechs and owner of the Synot holding.

The billionaire bought the robot in spring for the Orbis educational institute in Zlín, which he founded himself. "Our school has an IT programme, and to stay attractive we decided to take a different path than similar schools around us and focus on humanoid robots. So I bought one," Valenta said. According to him, students will gradually upgrade the robot and expand its capabilities.

The same robot could also be bought abroad, but the businessman chose a Czech seller because of the warranty. "Today it's a kind of toy and teaching aid, but in the future we want to turn this into a business as well," Valenta explains. Commercially, however, he plans to focus not on humanoids but on robotic dogs, which a security firm from the Synot group could use to guard sites. "We're going to put our heart into them," the entrepreneur says of his robotics plans.

Alza has been selling Unitree robots — both humanoids and "metal dogs" — since last October and is practically the only seller in Europe that keeps them in stock. The company also represents the Chinese manufacturer in Slovakia and Hungary. Alza does not disclose exact sales figures but says results have exceeded initial expectations.

The humanoid robot market is experiencing a global boom: around 15,000 such machines were produced worldwide last year, 85% of them in China, and about 60,000 are expected this year. According to Goldman Sachs, the humanoid market could reach $138 billion by 2035.

By the Around Prague newsroom