Market trends and business perspectives
Soft Robotics has raised $23 million in an oversubscribed Series B funding round.
The round was co-led by Calibrate Ventures and Material Impact and includes additional existing investors Honeywell, Hyperplane, Scale, Tekfen Ventures, and Yamaha.
With this round Soft Robotics also adds Fanuc, the world’s largest industrial robot manufacturer, as a new investor. [Read more…] about Fanuc invests in Soft Robotics as startup raises $23 million in oversubscribed funding round
Startup company Naïo Technologies has raised €14 million in a new funding round to develop and expand its farming robots business.
After a first round of €3 million in 2015, the French start-up Naïo Technologies specialized in agricultural robots, announces the closing of a €14 million funding round led by Bpifrance.
Impact investor Pymwymic and Codema and its historical shareholders, Demeter and Capagro, flanked Bpifrance in this investment round. [Read more…] about Naïo Technologies raises €14 million for farm robot business
May Mobility, an autonomous transportation-as-a-service provider, has closed a $50 million Series B funding round led by Toyota.
There was also participation from Sparx Group, alongside return investors Millennium Technology Value Partners, Cyrus Capital Partners, BMW iVentures, and Toyota AI Ventures.
The company says the round will help fund strategic hires across the engineering and operations functions, and expansion of the vehicle fleet to meet growing demand. [Read more…] about May Mobility raises $50 million in funding round led by Toyota
by Sam Francis
Leading global logistics provider DB Schenker has introduced Gideon Brothers autonomous logistics robots into service at its Leipzig facility.
Gideon Brothers, an AI and robotics company, developed breakthrough autonomy technology that combines deep learning and advanced vision-based perception.
The technology offers a flexible solution for automating logistics operations in existing facilities, allowing productivity gains without the need to modify facilities. [Read more…] about Gideon Brothers raises €2.65 million in new funding and partners with DB Schenker
by Mai Tao
HRG has launched what it describes as an “automated guided vehicle”, although it appears to have the technology that is also found in autonomous mobile robots, which are slightly different.
AGVs are older technology and are limited in their ability to navigate their way round a facility – usually, magnetic strips are fixed to the floor to guide them.
HRG says its AGV integrates “simultaneous localization and mapping”, or SLAM, the navigation technology that gives AMRs their autonomy. [Read more…] about HRG launches new ‘automated guided vehicle’
Startup company Diligent Robotics has raised $3 million in seed funding to launch “Moxi”, the company’s hospital robot.
Diligent Robotics describes itself as an artificial intelligence company which builds socially intelligent robots that help people with their jobs.
Its first product, hospital robot assistant named Moxi, is now out of beta and into market, beginning with the roll-out of Moxi into a Texas hospital starting October 2, 2019. [Read more…] about Diligent Robotics raises $3 million seed funding to launch Moxi the hospital robot
Applied Intuition, a provider of a simulation platform for autonomous vehicle development, has raised $40 million in Series B financing.
The funding round was led by General Catalyst with participation from Kleiner Perkins, M12 (Microsoft), Sozo Ventures, and La Famiglia.
Previous investors, Andreessen Horowitz, Lux Capital, and Floodgate, also participated in this round. [Read more…] about Autonomous vehicles simulator Applied Intuition raises $40 million in funding
CMR Surgical, the maker of the “Versius” robotic surgery system, has raised $240 million in its latest funding round.
The company says the new money will enable it to fully fund the global commercialisation of the business.
Since the last funding round in May 2018, CMR Surgical has further accelerated its growth in order to achieve its mission of bringing minimal access surgery to patients around the world. [Read more…] about CMR Surgical raises $240 million in Series C financing
by Sam Francis
Yamaha is using part of its $100 million investment fund to buy a stake in Advanced Farm Technologies.
Yamaha Motor Ventures & Laboratory Silicon Valley led the Series A funding round for the startup.
Yamaha says this latest investment reflects the company’s “core interest in businesses driving innovation in the agricultural sector. [Read more…] about Yamaha taps into its $100 million fund to invest in Advanced Farm Technologies
by Anna
Robert Bosch Venture Capital, the corporate venture capital company of the Bosch Group, is leading a growth financing round in MegaRobo.
The Chinese high-tech robotic company with over 100 employees is headquartered in Beijing and integrates cutting-edge machine vision and artificial intelligence (AI) to provide modular automation solutions for lab automation, smart retail and light industrial sectors.
“MegaRobo’s technology increases efficiency in production automation. Already today, robots from MegaRobo are used for special applications in the end-of-line production of household appliances at Bosch”, says RBVC managing director Dr Ingo Ramesohl.
[Read more…] about Robert Bosch Venture Capital leads growth funding round in MegaRobo
Robotics and Automation News was established in May, 2015, and is now one of the most widely-read websites in its category.
Please consider supporting us by becoming a paying subscriber, or through advertising and sponsorships, or by purchasing products and services through our shop – or a combination of all of the above.
Thank you.
This website and its associated magazine, and weekly newsletter, are all produced by a small team of experienced journalists and media professionals.
If you have any suggestions or comments, feel free to contact us at any of the email addresses on our contact page.
We’d be happy to hear from you, and will always reply as soon as possible.
We support the principles of net neutrality and equal opportunities.
