So far, 2024 isn’t looking like a bad year for robotics startup funding.
Developers of workplace robots, robotic surgery technology and even humanoid models have all raised significant amounts of funding in the past six months. A funding boom in artificial intelligence is also fueling growth in the sector, with investors backing some big deals at the intersection of AI and robotics.
Robotics startups have raised a total of more than $4.2 billion in seed to growth stage funding this year, according to Crunchbase data, which puts fundraising above last year’s weak levels but still below cyclical peaks, as shown in the chart below.
Workplace robots
Where is the money going? Workplace robots continue to attract the most rounds, according to Crunchbase data, with startups looking to offset the need for human labor for tasks like delivering meals, pulling weeds and moving goods around warehouses.
Among the biggest recipients in this vein is San Francisco-based Bright Machines, a developer of software and robotics technology for factory manufacturing. The company raised $106 million in Series C funding and an additional $20 million in debt in a BlackRock-led funding round announced Tuesday.
The other big round went to Silicon Valley-based Collaborative Robotics, which raised a $100 million Series B round this spring led by General Catalyst. The company’s business model focuses on building “cobots,” or robots that can work alongside humans on tasks like carrying boxes or moving industrial carts.
In the agtech space, Seattle-based Carbon Robotics raised $85 million in Series C funding. The company’s flagship product is an AI-powered weed-killing robot that offers farmers a less labor-intensive way to reduce their reliance on herbicides.
Meanwhile, Redwood City, California-based Bear Robotics, which raised $60 million in funding in March led by LG Electronics, makes mobile robots that can carry trays and packages and sells them to customers in industries including hospitality, nursing homes and warehousing.
The humanoids are coming
We are also seeing huge investments in start-ups developing humanoid robots, a staple of science fiction but yet to become part of everyday reality.
Sunnyvale, California-based Figurine, which describes itself as “an AI robotics company bringing universal humanoids to life,” was the biggest investment of the day after it raised $675 million in Series B in February. The company attracted significant interest from corporate investors including NVIDIA, Microsoft and Amazon.
1X, a startup based in Norway and Silicon Valley, raised $98 million in January to develop early humanoid models, including NEO, which uses muscle-like structures to create a human-like body, and EVE, a robot that resembles a human but has wheels instead of legs.
According to 1X, humanoid robots represent the most logical form factor for integrating advanced processing and AI more deeply into the physical world, positing in a research note on the company’s website that “essentially, our world was designed by and for humans, making the human form the most effective means of interfacing with that world.”
Overall, it’s still early days to imagine what AI-powered humanoids could actually accomplish. The startup envisions these robots serving industries such as agriculture, construction, and healthcare, taking on particularly dangerous and repetitive tasks.
Surgical Robots
Surgical robotics has also been a major area of ​​robotics startup investment for many years, and 2024 is no exception.
The largest funding round was secured by MMI, a developer of robotic-assisted microsurgery technology, which raised $110 million in a Series C led by Fidelity in February. The company said its technology allows surgeons to replicate the movements of the human hand at a microscopic level, expanding treatment options for patients requiring open soft-tissue surgery.
Most recently, Shanghai-based Lonovo Surgical raised $44 million in Series B funding announced this month. The company is developing a robotic-assisted system for laparoscopic surgery.
Easy to appeal, hard to prove
Unlike many other emerging sectors, robotics company founders have no trouble convincing us why we need their products – after all, who wouldn’t want a robot to do the boring, arduous, dangerous, and time-consuming work that humans find so tedious?
Moreover, as global population growth rates slow, especially in developed countries, there will not necessarily be enough people willing and able to do the work required to provide and maintain the levels of services and infrastructure to which we are accustomed.
The challenge is execution: Can currently funded startups perform the tasks assigned to them and realize their vision with scalable, affordable robotics technology?
Certainly, it would be nice to answer in the affirmative, but the history of startups shows that while there are great success stories, there are also many failures.
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Illustration: Dom Guzman
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