LOVOT: a home robot designed not to do any work

A robot that won’t do your work for you

LOVOT is a home robot from GROOVE X, a Japanese company led by Kaname Hayashi. When it was unveiled in December 2018, the company described it as not a convenient robot that works in place of people. It stands about 43 cm tall, moves on wheels and has touch sensors over almost its whole body. Its body is kept at 30–40°C, and its eyes are made of layered displays. A hemispherical camera sits in a horn on its head. At announcement it cost ¥349,000 for one or ¥598,000 for a pair, before tax, plus a monthly service fee. Sales in Japan began in December 2019.

From 10,000 shipped to 18,000 active

GROOVE X had raised ¥12.4 billion in total by December 2020. In March 2022 Yusaku Maezawa’s fund acquired the company, and Hayashi stayed on as CEO. LOVOT 2.0 came out the same year, and shipments passed 10,000 in November. LOVOT 3.0, released in May 2024, uses an NVIDIA Jetson module to handle face recognition and gesture responses on the robot itself. As of January 2026 more than 18,000 units were active, sold through 17 stores in Japan and 2 in China. The price kept rising. In September 2026 the company cited higher costs for materials, parts, manufacturing and logistics and announced that LOVOT 3.0 in the base colour would rise to ¥599,500 from 26 October, and to about ¥649,000 from mid-January 2027.

An hour a day in someone’s arms

The company reported a 95% retention rate in 2022. In 2026 it said that 90% of owners still had their LOVOT after three years and held it for about an hour a day on average. In a 2026 pilot in Singapore with 105 older people and 66 children with high support needs over twelve weeks, the older participants’ quality of life improved and caregivers’ burden fell. In a study at a dementia care home in Arakawa, Tokyo, residents on whom the robot alone had little effect showed more joy when a member of staff joined in. Staff named the robot’s weight, the risk of falls and charging as concerns. Reviewing the announcement, Tom’s Guide wrote: “For that money, this thing better love you for a long time.”

Designed so nobody asks what it’s for

In shops, Pepper was compared with a tablet. LOVOT never claimed a task, so there is no function to compare. Its warm body and its weight in your arms became the point of the product. PARO found its place through the institutions of care; LOVOT found its first place in private homes willing to pay a high price. Because it depends on a monthly fee, though, the company’s survival may shape how long the robot lasts.

If this robot does no work, what are people paying for?

What we haven’t confirmed

• Which functions run on the robot and which run in the cloud
• What LOVOT can do if the monthly fee stops being paid
• The price of the Maezawa acquisition, and recent revenue and profit
• The “more than 20,000” contracts figure on the official site (the page counter displayed incorrectly)