Investment Highlight: Robotics and the future of work

Trends in investing say a lot about what we all are optimistic about. The pandemic inspired thousands of glow-ups utilizing fresh technology on old equipment (Peloton and Ergatta) and empowered millions of amateur traders on apps like Robinhood and WeBull. But when so many of these now-household names turn out to be overvalued, optimism needs a new place to call home. So far, it looks like investors are into robotics, transforming the future of work.

Just look at the leaderboard for the past week’s fundings. Dusty Robotics, a robotic tool company for the modern construction industry, raised $45MM from Scale Venture Partners. What looks like a heavy-duty Roomba is actually a robotic layout printer, crawling out precise building instructions for its human colleagues to build.

Southie Autonomy lends a robotic hand to packagers, manufacturers, and retailers. The Boston-based company raised a $2.5MM seed round from BootstrapLabs. The company's no-code software makes it easy for workers to instruct a robotic helper in less than 10 minutes.

The question everyone wants to ask is whether robots will be replacing humans? For the most part, the existential question remains unknown, with robotics startups in the U.S. emphasizing that the technology assists human workers rather than replaces employees. However, using Japan as an example, robotics investment combined with population decline can work together to everyone's advantage.

For more on this topic, search our fundings using the keyword “robotics.”