Enchanted Tools
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Last reviewed
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v6 · 3,404 words
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| Enchanted Tools | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Type | Private (SAS) |
| Industry | Robotics, Artificial intelligence |
| Founded | June 2021; Paris, France |
| Founders | Jerome Monceaux, Samuel Benveniste |
| Headquarters | Paris, France |
| Key people | Jerome Monceaux (CEO), Samuel Benveniste (Vice President) |
| Products | Mirokai (social robot) |
| Employees | 140+ (as of 2025) |
| Website | enchanted.tools |
Enchanted Tools is a French robotics company headquartered in Paris that designs and manufactures character-driven social robots for healthcare, hospitality, and service environments. Founded in June 2021 by Jerome Monceaux and Samuel Benveniste, the company is best known for its flagship product, the Mirokai, a humanoid robot that balances on an omnidirectional rolling sphere and features an animated face projected by a real-time 3D rendering engine. The company's founding philosophy centers on the idea that robots should feel like animated characters rather than machines, blending practical utility with emotional engagement to encourage acceptance in everyday human settings.
Enchanted Tools raised approximately 15 million euros in seed funding in early 2022, which at the time represented the largest seed round in the history of French robotics.[1] The company was awarded the "Deeptech" label by Bpifrance (the French public investment bank) and was selected as one of 125 startups in the French Tech 2030 program, a government initiative supporting strategically important deep-technology companies.[2] As of late 2025, Enchanted Tools employs over 140 people and has delivered robots to research institutions and hospitals, with commercial deployments planned for 2026.
Jerome Monceaux is a serial entrepreneur in robotics and human-robot interaction. He co-founded Aldebaran Robotics in 2005, where he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Creative Officer through 2015. During that period, he led the development of two of the most commercially successful social robots in history: the NAO educational robot and the Pepper emotional companion robot. NAO was deployed in thousands of research labs and schools worldwide, while Pepper, unveiled in Tokyo in June 2014, was marketed as the first robot capable of reading human emotions. SoftBank acquired Aldebaran in 2012 and later rebranded it as SoftBank Robotics.[3][4]
After departing Aldebaran in November 2015, Monceaux founded SPooN.ai in December 2015, a company focused on interactive virtual characters and empathetic human-machine interfaces. SPooN developed character technology for retail, automotive, and consumer applications, reinforcing Monceaux's conviction that character-driven design was essential for human acceptance of robots. SPooN's technology later informed elements of Enchanted Tools' character design pipeline.[5][6]
Samuel Benveniste brought a complementary academic and clinical background. He holds a Master's degree in Software Design and Applied Mathematics from Mines Paris (2004 to 2007) and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the same institution (2007 to 2010). Before co-founding Enchanted Tools, he served as Deputy Head and Chief Technology Officer of the Centre d'Expertise National en Stimulation Cognitive (CEN STIMCO) from 2013 to 2021. At CEN STIMCO, Benveniste designed therapeutic technology for vulnerable populations, including MINWii, a music-based cognitive stimulation game for Alzheimer's patients, and MAWii, an improvisational game for children with ADHD. His expertise in human cognition and therapeutic technology shaped the company's approach to robots designed for healthcare environments.[7][8]
Enchanted Tools was legally established on June 30, 2021, initially registered under the name Simplex Robotics as a single-shareholder simplified joint stock company (SASU) devoted to the "design, development, manufacturing, commercialization and operation of interactive service robots."[9] The company was later renamed Enchanted Tools, a name reflecting its core philosophy that robots should "re-enchant" everyday environments rather than dehumanize them.[4]
Monceaux has described the founding motivation as addressing the two key limitations he observed in his earlier robots. While NAO and Pepper achieved commercial success, they ultimately failed to become integral parts of everyday human life because they were not useful enough for sustained deployment and lacked the character depth needed for long-term emotional engagement. Enchanted Tools was conceived to solve both problems simultaneously: creating robots that perform practical logistics tasks while maintaining the emotional appeal of animated characters.[4]
The company presented its first working Mirokai prototype after just 12 months of research and development, a timeline that drew attention from the French technology press and robotics industry.[10]
In February 2022, Enchanted Tools closed a seed funding round of approximately 15 million euros (roughly $17 million USD), marking the largest early-stage robotics investment in French history at that time. The round was primarily backed by business angels and venture investors, including Arion Venture Capital. Chammas & Marcheteau served as legal advisor for the transaction.[1][11][12]
The funding enabled the company to assemble a multidisciplinary team of over 50 engineers, designers, and animators to begin full-scale development of the Mirokai platform. Monceaux raised the capital on the promise of delivering a functional robot prototype within one year, a commitment the team met.[1][10]
| Funding Summary |
|---|
| Round |
| Seed |
| Total raised |
Enchanted Tools received two significant forms of French government recognition. The company was awarded the "Deeptech" label by Bpifrance, the French public investment bank, which certifies companies working on deep technology with significant scientific and engineering complexity. It was also selected as one of 125 startups for the French Tech 2030 program, a government initiative launched by La French Tech that provides selected companies with facilitated access to public funding, strategic partnerships, and institutional support.[2][13]
The Mirokai is Enchanted Tools' flagship and, as of 2025, only product line. It is a social logistics robot standing 123 centimeters tall and weighing 28 to 30 kilograms. The robot features a patented omnidirectional ball-bot mobile base, two dexterous arms with torque-controlled actuators, and an animated face generated by a real-time 3D projection system. The Mirokai platform comes in two character variants: Miroki (a yellow male character) and Miroka (an orange female character). Both share the same hardware but have distinct visual designs and personality traits.[14]
| Mirokai Key Specifications |
|---|
| Attribute |
| Height |
| Weight |
| Degrees of freedom |
| Locomotion |
| Maximum speed |
| Payload |
| Grasping success rate |
| Battery life |
| Charging time |
| Approximate price |
The robot uses precision brushless DC motors manufactured by maxon, a Swiss motor company, and runs on dual NVIDIA Jetson modules with GPU acceleration for AI processing. Its software stack integrates multiple large language models for conversation, vision-language models for contextual understanding, and Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (VSLAM) for autonomous navigation.[14][15]
For detailed technical specifications, design philosophy, and deployment information, see the main article: Mirokai.
The "Mirokai Explorer Suit," unveiled at CES 2025, represents a major hardware and software revision in which approximately 80 percent of the robot's components were redesigned from the previous year's model. Key improvements include high-speed, torque-controlled actuators that are twice as fast as the previous generation, upgraded 3D cameras with time-of-flight and ultrasonic sensors providing 360-degree coverage, a multi-LLM AI system with multilingual emotional prosody, and omnidirectional wheels tested for over 5,000 kilometers of durability. The Explorer Suit also introduced an in-house-designed RING security system and compliant actuators for safer human interaction.[16][17]
Enchanted Tools' approach to robotics is grounded in what the company calls "character-driven design," a methodology that borrows from animated filmmaking, video game development, and narrative storytelling. Rather than designing a machine first and adding personality later, the company develops the character and its backstory alongside the engineering. Monceaux has described this as creating "synthetic alterities," meaning robots that simulate intelligent and emotional behaviors to establish natural human connections, without pursuing true artificial consciousness.[4][18]
The company's design process involves collaboration between animation experts, industrial designers, and robotics engineers. This interdisciplinary approach produces robots that communicate through posture, ear movement, head tilts, projected facial expressions, and movement dynamics, creating what the company calls an "expressive vocabulary" of micro-interactions.[14][18]
Enchanted Tools created an elaborate fictional universe for the Mirokai. According to the company's narrative, the Mirokai are a species of benevolent luminous beings from a distant planet who have watched over humanity since ancient times. Their influence is woven into cave paintings, sculptures, melodies, and writings throughout human history. The name "Mirokai" is said to derive from Japanese words meaning "seeing the beauty in the other."[19]
Two characters from this fictional species have crossed a portal to assist humanity directly: Miroki and Miroka. This backstory is not merely a marketing exercise; it shapes design decisions including the robot's physical proportions, movement style, color palette, and interaction behaviors.[14][19]
To develop the Mirokai universe further, Enchanted Tools partnered with Gaumont, the oldest film company in the world, founded in Paris in 1895. Gaumont Animation collaborated with Enchanted Tools to develop animated content and a planned animated film set in the Mirokai universe. This partnership bridges the gap between character illustration and industrial design, bringing cinematic storytelling techniques to the robotics industry and extending the robot's identity beyond its physical form into broader media.[19][20]
Enchanted Tools established an early partnership with Assistance Publique-Hopitaux de Paris (AP-HP), the largest hospital system in Europe. Mirokai robots were tested at AP-HP Broca hospital, which specializes in geriatric medicine. The pilot program demonstrated the robots' capability in material transport and logistical assistance within a clinical environment, including delivering medical supplies and transporting items between departments.[21][22]
In early 2025, Enchanted Tools announced a partnership with the Institut du Cancer de Montpellier (ICM) and SIRIC Montpellier Cancer for a world-first application in pediatric oncology. In this deployment, a Miroki robot accompanies children throughout their radiotherapy journey, providing emotional support and companionship during treatment sessions when adults are unable to be present due to radiation exposure. Following dosimetric tests conducted in June 2025 to analyze radiation-matter interaction phenomena, Miroki was authorized to accompany children inside the radiotherapy room during their sessions. The ICM reported that the robot helped reduce stress and loneliness in young patients; one case highlighted an 8-year-old patient who arrived crying but began her sessions with a smile after interacting with the robot.[23][24]
In July 2024, Enchanted Tools delivered its first Mirokai unit to the Institut des Systemes Intelligents et de Robotique (ISIR), a research institute under the auspices of Sorbonne University, CNRS, and INSERM. This delivery marked the company's first commercial handover to an external customer. The partnership with ISIR focuses on three research areas: interactive programming (enabling non-technical users to program robots through demonstration), low-level control (optimizing synchronization of the robot's actuators using whole-body control principles), and human-robot interaction (developing adaptive interactive behaviors for natural engagement).[25]
Enchanted Tools maintains several technology partnerships that support its development and manufacturing efforts.
The company also works with members of the PILLAR-Robots consortium, a European Union Horizon Europe research project focused on purposeful intrinsically motivated lifelong learning in autonomous robots, which runs from 2022 to 2026.[26]
Enchanted Tools has maintained a consistent presence at major international technology and robotics exhibitions since 2023.
The company debuted the Mirokai publicly at CES 2023 in Las Vegas, where it drew attention for its Pixar-like character design and unusual ball-based locomotion. CES 2024 featured an updated version of the robot, and the Enchanted Tools booth at Eureka Park attracted a visit from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.[22] At CES 2025, the company unveiled the Mirokai Explorer Suit, a major hardware revision that the company described as representing an 80 percent redesign. Enchanted Tools' participation at CES 2025 drew attention from media in the United States, Europe, and Asia, and technology publications listed Mirokai among the most notable robots at the show.[16][17]
| CES Appearances |
|---|
| Year |
| CES 2023 |
| CES 2024 |
| CES 2025 |
Beyond CES, Enchanted Tools has exhibited at several other major events.
| Other Notable Exhibition Appearances |
|---|
| Event |
| VivaTech |
| IREX (International Robot Exhibition) |
| NRF (National Retail Federation) |
| ICRA (International Conference on Robotics and Automation) |
| SXSW |
| Humanoids Summit |
Enchanted Tools follows a structured prototyping methodology with A, B, and C prototype stages, each testing the robot against functional, design, service life, and regulatory constraints. The company produced approximately 50 robots through a pilot production line in 2024. Production targets call for scaling to 200 to 300 units in 2025, over 1,000 units annually by 2026 using a larger factory, and a cumulative total of 100,000 robots by approximately 2032.[15][27]
| Production Roadmap |
|---|
| Year |
| 2024 |
| 2025 |
| 2026+ |
| ~2032 |
Enchanted Tools pursues a business-to-business (B2B) model, selling or leasing robots to hospitals, hotel chains, airports, and retail organizations rather than directly to consumers. The Mirokai is priced at approximately 30,000 euros per unit. The company launched an Early Access Program in 2025, seeking organizations in healthcare, retail, and hospitality willing to serve as early deployment partners, with a goal of placing 100 additional robots in the field that year.[14][28]
The company has stated that full B2B deployment is targeted to begin in 2026, with broader public accessibility targeted for 2029 at reduced costs as manufacturing scales.[4][28]
In addition to complete robot sales, Enchanted Tools has indicated interest in licensing and selling subsystems (such as its ball-bot platform and actuation technology) to third-party developers, creating a secondary revenue stream from its intellectual property.[29]
Enchanted Tools operates at the intersection of social robotics and service robotics, a segment that includes companies developing robots for human-facing environments such as hospitals, hotels, airports, and retail stores.
The company competes with several categories of robotics firms.
| Competitive Landscape |
|---|
| Category |
| Social/companion robots |
| Delivery robots |
| Humanoid robots (full-size) |
| Service robot platforms |
| Virtual characters/AI assistants |
Mirokai's ball-bot locomotion, character-driven design, and dual focus on social interaction and logistics differentiate it from most competitors. Its closest historical comparison is Pepper, which was also designed for social interaction in service environments but lacked significant carrying capacity and advanced AI capabilities. Pepper's European operations were eventually scaled back, and its production was discontinued.[3][4]
Enchanted Tools positions the Mirokai in the premium segment of the service robot market. At approximately 30,000 euros, it is significantly less expensive than full-size humanoid robots (which typically cost $100,000 or more) but more expensive than simple delivery robots. The company targets organizations willing to invest in a robot that combines practical logistics with emotional and social engagement, particularly in healthcare settings where patient experience is a priority.[14][28]
As of 2025, Enchanted Tools employs over 140 people from diverse backgrounds and nationalities, headquartered at 18 rue de la Fontaine au Roi in the 11th arrondissement of Paris.[29]
| Key Leadership |
|---|
| Name |
| Jerome Monceaux |
| Samuel Benveniste |
| Laurent Vasse |
| Richard Malterre |
The company's Science and Innovation Board includes prominent figures from institutions such as Saint-Gobain, ISIR (Sorbonne University), Broca Living Lab, Inria, CNRS, Renault, and the University of Naples.[29]