Robotics Roundup #5: May 2024
Off-road AVs, robotic marksmanship, and automated weeding
Welcome back to Robotics Roundup, a look back at the month’s most important VC deals for the robotics industry. The month of May was heavy on defense tech, with some notable AV and agtech deals as well.
The Deals
Wayve raised $1.05B in Series C funding in a round led by SoftBank Group, with participation from new investor NVIDIA and existing investor Microsoft. The London company’s embodied AI system will enable OEMs to upgrade existing vehicles to higher levels of driving automation, and claims to be the first company to develop and test an end-to-end deep learning autonomous driving system on public roads.
The Bot Company raised $150M in funding led by former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, and Nabeel Hyatt, with participation from Quiet Capital, Patrick Collison, Elad Gil, Fifty Years, and others. Public details remain sparse, but the SF-based company — led by Cruise founder Kyle Vogt — is focused on automating household chores.
XTEND raised a $40M Series B round led by Chartered Group. The Tel Aviv company is building a human-supervised, AI-driven drone and robot operating system, with applications in first response, search and rescue, logistics, infrastructure inspection, defense, and security.
Gatik brought in $30M in funding from trucking giant Isuzu. The Silicon Valley company is building autonomous trucking technology, and claims to be the only autonomous middle mile logistics service provider in North America.
Orca AI raised $23M in a round led by OCV Partners and Mizmaa Ventures. The London company’s technology processes different sources of visual information from ships to help mitigate risk on the high seas.
Aerodome raised $21.5M in Series A funding led by CRV, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Karman Ventures, Mercury CEO Immad Akhund, and Ford Street Ventures. The Los Angeles startup is developing “drone-as-a-first-responder” technology that equips agencies with autonomous air support.
Neros announced that it had raised $10.9M across their Seed, led by Sequoia Capital, and pre-Seed, led by Cantos. Additional investors include Peter Thiel, A*, D3, Long Journey, and BoxGroup. Headquartered in Los Angeles, the company is designing, manufacturing, and shipping drones for use by the Ukrainian military.
FarmWise raised $10M in post-Series B funding, according to a report in the San Francisco Business Times. The Silicon Valley company provides automated weeding technology for farmers.
Overland AI raised $10M in Seed funding in a round led by Point72 Ventures with participation from Shasta Ventures, Ascend VC, Pioneer Square Labs, Voyager Capital, and Cubit Capital. The Seattle company is building autonomous off-road vehicles for use in the defense sector.
Lucid Bots raised $9.1M in a Series A funding round led by Cubit Capital, with participation from Idea Fund Partners, Danu Venture Group, and existing investors. The Charlotte-based company is building a suite of autonomous commercial-grade cleaning drones.
ZeroMark raised $7M in Seed funding led by Ground Up Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. The New York defense tech company is building an AI-powered “auto-aiming system” that physically augments a soldier’s arm to help them target hostile drones with conventional firearms.
Unlimited Robotics raised $5M in Seed funding led by lool ventures, with participation from Wix co-founder Avishai Abrahami and Fiverr co-founder Micha Kauffman. The Israeli company’s two-armed robot performs common hospital tasks like delivering meals and supplies, directing patients and visitors, and helping elderly patients with cognitive activities.
Relocalize announced the second closing of its $4.26M Seed round led by Desjardins Capital with participation from initial seed investors i4 Capital, Waterpoint Lane, RGS Ice, and others. The Montreal company deploys autonomous microfactories at grocery distribution centers to produce ultra-local products.
Nami Surgical raised a total of $4M in Seed and grant funding, with the investment led by impact investment firm Eos Advisory and the Investment Fund for Scotland. The Glasgow company develops miniaturized ultrasonic medical devices for use during surgery, including an ultrasonic scalpel.
Unmanned Defense Systems raised $3.45M in funding led by Coinvest Capital. The Lithuanian company is developing battlefield drone technology capable of horizontal and vertical integration capable of “swarm” tactics.
Carbon Robotics raised an undisclosed amount of capital in an investment led by NVentures, NVIDIA’s venture capital arm. The Seattle company’s “LaserWeeder” technology uses high-speed computer vision to autonomously detect weeds in farmer’s fields, and eliminates them with lasers.
Elementary raised an undisclosed amount of strategic investment from Rockwell Automation. The Los Angeles company builds AI-driven machine vision inspection systems that automate quality control processes.
Realtime Robotics raised an undisclosed amount of Series B funding from the Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. The Boston company optimizes motion plans and interlocks, allowing multiple robotic systems to work together in unstructured, collaborative workspaces.
Do you have questions, feedback, or a funding round to announce? Get in touch at stateofrobotics@fprimecapital.com