Another robotics startup has raised a large amount of money, signaling a rebound in investor appetite in the space.
Collaborative Robotics, an automation startup founded by former Amazon Robotics chief Brad Porter, just raised $100 million in a round led by General Catalyst. Other investors included Bison Ventures, Industry Ventures, and Lux Capital. Existing backers, Sequoia Capital and Khosla Ventures, also participated.
The latest round values Collaborative Robotics at more than $500 million, Porter told Business Insider.
The raise follows other recent high-profile investments in robotics startups, such as Figure AI, 1X, and Physical Intelligence.
Porter said the funding was opportunistic as his company has spent less than $10 million of the money it raised so far. Founded in 2022, Collaborative Robotics has 35 employees and deployed its first product earlier this year.
“What we’re seeing, which caused us to accelerate our fundraising timeline, was that there’s a lot of excitement in robotics, and I think a lot of excitement about this kind of new phase of AI-powered robotics and more human-capable robots,” Porter said.
Replacing conveyor belts
Collaborative Robotics has raised $140 million in total so far. Yet the company has been secretive about its product, and still hasn’t publicly disclosed what it looks like.
Porter told BI that the initial product is designed to load and unload boxes and carts on its own, and move in any direction in places like the back of a container or moving dock. The device stands a little under 6-feet tall and runs on four wheels on the ground, he added.
Porter said the potential demand for Collaborative Robotics is huge because moving carts are found in almost every industry, from manufacturing plants and logistics centers to hospitals and airports. Mayo Clinic, which also invested in Collaborative Robotics, is one of the early customers, he added.
“Instead of having to put in a big conveyor belt system worth tens of millions of dollars, our robots just come in and move the carts like humans would,” Porter said. “Anywhere you have people moving carts, boxes and totes, we’re going to jump in and handle that work for them with our robot.”
VC interest in robotics startups has rebounded lately, after a slump in 2022 and frenzied dealmaking in 2021, according to research firm Pitchbook.
Venture capital investment in advanced manufacturing, which covers automation, robotics, and 3D printing, reached a high of $9.1 billion in 2021. That number dropped in 2022 and 2023, but saw a lesser decline compared with the broader venture market, according to Pitchbook. Deal count in the space also reached 540 in 2021, before dipping to 464 and 418 in the next two years.
“The significant funds allocated to robotics and additive manufacturing indicate a strong VC confidence in hardware-focused companies within the advanced manufacturing landscape,” Pitchbook wrote in a recent report.
Porter said investors lately have become interested in the rise of AI and its potential to significantly improve robots. There’s a general sense that ambitious AI projects are now possible, and investors are increasingly looking into those startups that can “fuse AI and hardware in impressive ways,” he said.
“There’s a recognition that AI is going to make robotics more flexible, more adaptable, easier to integrate, and therefore, it’s going to be possible to deploy robots in ways that were hard to do five years ago, or going to become much easier to do,” Porter said.
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