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Robotics investment for the month of September 2023 totaled $1.84 billion, the result of 50 investments (See Table 1 below or download Table 1 here). Total funding for the months of January 2023 through September 2023 equals approximately $10.7 billion. Funding was $851 million in August 2023 and nearly $2 billion in July 2023.
Companies located in the USA, China and Israel received the most rounds and the most funding amounts, dwarfing other countries (Figure 1, below). Companies based in the USA received the majority of the rounds (23), which resulted in a total funding inflow of $537 million. Firms based in China attracted $141 million in funding (coming from 17 investments), while four investments in Israeli companies accounted for $94M in investment.
The types of businesses and their offerings varied widely among the funded companies. As usual, companies offering robotic surgical systems and enabling technologies attracted sizable rounds. CMR Surgical ($164 million) and Virtual Incision ($30 million) serve as examples.
Also consistent with 2023 funding trends, providers of self-driving software and hardware solutions for autonomous transportation, also received substantial funding. Stack AV ($1 billion), Kodiak Robotics ($75 million), FERNRIDE ($19 million) and AutoCore ($10 million), exemplify.
Companies offering unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), usually coupled with drone-enabled data and analytics services, continue to receive sizable funding rounds. These providers typically focus on surveying and inspection applications for their offerings, with construction, agriculture, utilities and energy sectors as the target markets. Suppliers offering solutions to the defense and security sectors also attracted funding. Examples include AeroVironment ($109M), Treeswift ($11M), Shield AI ($150M) and Perceptual Robotics ($3M).
Figure 1: September 2023 Robotics Investment by Country
For both the total number of investments and the total amount of investment, most funding fell under the aegis of ‘Other’, a catchall descriptor for investments that do not include the typical stages of funding that businesses go through before their initial public offering (ex. Seed rounds followed by Series A, B, C, D and E funding). A single Series D round (CMR Surgical, $164M) accounted for approximately 9% of September 2023’s funding totals.
Figure 2: September 2023 Robotics Funding Amounts by Investment Type
Figure 3: September 2023 Robotics Funding Amounts by Investment Number and Amounts
Table 1: September 2023 Robotics Funding and Investment
| Company | Amount | Funding Type | Country | Product |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AeroVironment | $109,007,119 | Other | USA | AeroVironment specializes in unmanned aircraft systems and electric vehicle charging solutions. |
| Agora Robotics | Estimate | Pre-Seed | Romania | Agora Robotics provides easy to use, autonomous mobile robots. |
| AIS Field | Estimate | Seed | Turkey | AIS Field provides a range of robotic inspection and maintenance services for the oil and gas, energy and power generation industries.. |
| Anqing Technology | Estimate | Other | China | Anqing Technology is a provider of UAV traffic management services and equipment, as well as safe autonomous flight technology. |
| Ascento | $4,300,000 | Pre-Seed | Switzerland | Ascento produces a compact and agile jumping robot designed for mixed environments. |
| Aurrigo International | $901,000 | Other | UK | Aurrigo develops autonomous vehicles for airport baggage/cargo handling, security/patrol and passenger movements. |
| AutoCore | Estimate | Series B | China | AutoCore is a provider of intelligent mobility software, automotive electrical, and electronic architecture solutions. |
| Benmo Technology (Direct Drive Tech) | Estimate | Series A | China | Benmo Technology offers direct-drive power solutions to providers of robotics systems, exercise equipment, and other products. |
| Blue Ocean Robot | $13,704,262 | Series C | China | Blue Ocean Robot is a provider of autonomus mobile robots and management systems. |
| Boxbot | $12,000,000 | Series A | USA | Boxbot provides storage and retrieval system that adapts to varying cubic dimensions. |
| Calyo | $1,634,079 | Other | UK | Calyo is developing 3-D ultrasound sensor technology for use in highly automated vehicles and platforms. |
| Cambrian Intelligence | $2,999,998 | Other | UK | Cambrian Intelligence offers visioning technology for robotics systems. |
| Changguangxi Intelligent Manufacturing | $13,705,013 | Series A | China | Changguangxi Intelligent Manufacturing focuses on the design and manufacturing of robots, intelligent motion technologies, and other items. |
| CMR Surgical | $163,948,774 | Series D | UK | CMR Surgical develops a surgical robotic system for minimal access surgery. |
| Deveron UAS | $1,486,712 | Other | Canada | Deveron UAS is a one-stop full-service UAS company that uses data produced by imagery and software analytics. |
| Diamon Robotics (Daimeng Robot) | Estimate | Other | China | Daimeng Robot is creating a series of general-purpose humanoid robots. |
| Dilberg (DareRobot) | Estimate | Other | China | Dilberg (DareRobot) provides robotics systems for heavy industrial manufacturing operations. |
| Diligent Robotics | $25,000,000 | Other | USA | Diligent Robotics develops humanoid robot assistants for work in the heathcare sector. |
| Driveblocks | $2,355,586 | Seed | Germany | Driveblocks offers a mapless autonomy platform that enables heavy duty vehicles to detect objects and perceive their sourrounding without relying on high-definition maps. |
| Eyebot | $1,000,000 | Pre-Seed | USA | Eyebot is developing rapid vision exam technologies for eyeglass. |
| FERNRIDE | $19,000,000 | Series A | Germany | FERNRIDE provides autonomous, electric trucking solutions. |
| Flygildi ehf | $2,200,000 | Seed | Iceland | Silent Flyer offers a flapping-wing bird-like drone with wings that can morph their shape during flight and fold into the body. |
| GL INS | Estimate | Seed | South Korea | GL INS is a company specializing in the development of industrial robots, industrial modules and automation facilities. |
| Gugong Robot | Estimate | Other | China | Gongong Robot is a manufacturer of robotics solutions for the construction sector. |
| Hong Jing Drive | $13,755,536 | Series B | China | Hong Jing Drive provides a computing platform for autonomous driving vehicles. |
| insideFPV | $422,289 | Seed | India | insideFPV provides customized ready to fly First Person View (FPV) drones. |
| Kodiak Robotics | $75,000,000 | Other | USA | Kodiak Robotics develops autonomous technology for long-haul trucking. |
| Loop Technology | Estimate | Seed | UK | Loop Technology provides industrial automation products and services. |
| Miso Robotics | $551,384 | Other | USA | Miso Robotics provides robotics and intelligent automation solutions to the commercial food service industry. |
| Monumental Labs | Estimate | Seed | USA | Monumental Labs is building AI-enabled robotic stone carving factories. |
| Mujin | $85,000,000 | Series C | Japan | Mujin offers automation solutions and industrial robots to for factory and logistics operations. |
| NakAI Robotics | Estimate | Seed | Israel | NakAI Robotics offers an underwater robot that cleans ships' hulls while the vessel is in motion. |
| Nauticus Robotics | $20,000,000 | Other | USA | Nauticus Robotics provides unmaned underwater vehicles and engineering services. |
| OnSight | Estimate | Seed | USA | OnSight produces an autonomous and teleoperated unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) that detects, reports, and observes issues and anomalies on solar farms. |
| Perceptual Robotics | Estimate | Other | UK | Perceptual Robotics provides intelligent automation solutions based on unmanned aerial systems for wind turbine and other infrastructure inspection. |
| Puncture Robotic | $13,618,412 | Series A | China | Puncture Robotic develops venipuncture robots that help in conducting blood collection without human intervention. |
| Q-Bot | $4,371,366 | Other | UK | Q-Bot produces mobile robots that spray insulation under floors. |
| REEV | $3,190,508 | Seed | France | REEV provdes lightweight and intelligent wearable robotic orthoses providing knee assistance while walking, sitting, standing and climbing stairs. |
| Robocon | $11,000,000 | Other | South Korea | Robocon is a developer of robotics and automation equipment designed for the production of rebar for the construction and steel industries. |
| Shield AI | $150,000,000 | Other | USA | Shield AI offers an AI pilot for aircraft and autonomus aerial vehicles. |
| silana | Estimate | Seed | Austria | silana is developing robotics and other technologies that automate manual sewing processes. |
| Sojo Industries | $2,800,000 | Seed | USA | Sojo Industries develops robotic assembly and packaging solutions for the food and beverage industries. |
| Square Robot | $5,000,000 | Other | USA | Square Robot builds robotic systems for submerged oil and gas inspections in above ground storage tanks. |
| Stack AV | $1,000,000,000 | Other | USA | Stack AV develops advanced autonomous systems technologies for the trucking industry. |
| Tethys Robotics | $164,445 | Other | Switzerland | Tethys Robotics develops underwater drones that enable underwater search & recovery to inspection & surveillance. |
| Treeswift | $10,811,986 | Other | USA | Treeswift utilizes robotics and machine learning for forestry applications. |
| UnitX | Estimate | Other | USA | UnitX provides AI-powered machine vision solutions for the manufacturing industry. |
| Virtual Incision | $30,000,000 | Series C | USA | Virtual Incision develops a miniaturized surgical robotic support device for colon resection. |
| Waste Robotics | $7,308,199 | Other | Canada | Waste Robotics designs and delivers intelligent robots for use in recycling centres. |
| Zhuji Dynamics | $120,000 | Pre-Seed | China | Zhuji Dynamics offers leggd robotics systems. |
Editor’s note: What defines robotics investments? The answer to this simple question is central in any attempt to quantify them with some degree of rigor. To make investment analyses consistent, repeatable, and valuable, it is critical to wring out as much subjectivity as possible during the evaluation process. This begins with a definition of terms and a description of assumptions.
Investors and Investing
Investment should come from venture capital firms, corporate investment groups, angel investors, and other sources. Friends-and-family investments, government/non-governmental agency grants, and crowd-sourced funding are excluded.
Robotics and Intelligent Systems Companies
Robotics companies must generate or expect to generate revenue from the production of robotics products (that sense, analyze, and act in the physical world), hardware or software subsystems and enabling technologies for robots, or services supporting robotics devices. For this analysis, autonomous vehicles (including technologies that support autonomous driving) and drones are considered robots, while 3D printers, CNC systems, and various types of “hard” automation are not.
Companies that are “robotic” in name only, or use the term “robot” to describe products and services that do not enable or support devices acting in the physical world, are excluded. For example, this includes “software robots” and robotic process automation. Many firms have multiple locations in different countries. Company locations given in the analysis are based on the publicly listed headquarters in legal documents, press releases, etc.
Verification
Funding information is collected from a number of public and private sources. These include press releases from corporations and investment groups, corporate briefings, market research firms, and association and industry publications. In addition, information comes from sessions at conferences and seminars, as well as during private interviews with industry representatives, investors, and others. Unverifiable investments are excluded and estimates are made where investment amounts are not provided or are unclear.
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