Persona AI expands in the Ion as Rice and Ion District support growth of AI innovation

Persona AI, the Houston-based humanoid robotics startup that recently closed $25 million in pre-seed funding, is significantly expanding its operations at the Ion, the Houston innovation hub powered by Rice University, in June. The fast-growing company, co-founded by former NASA roboticists Nicolaus Radford and Jide Akinyode, along with Jerry Pratt — former leader at IHMC Robotics and former CTO of Figure AI — will establish a state-of-the-art development center in the prominent corner…