Funding News: Robotics 2022

Despite the shock of the pandemic, the turbulent two years that followed, and the recent slowdown in investor funding, we have seen one tech sector remain strong – robotics. According to TechCrunch, venture capitalists invested more than $17BN into robotics start-ups in 2021, tripling investment in the sector in 2020. One factor explaining the increase is labor shortages, after more than 47M workers quit their jobs in 2021 alone – a.k.a. The Great Resignation – and further fueled companies' drive to automated solutions.

Here are a few of the robotics start-ups that caught our eye in recent news:

A company working to develop human-like intelligent robots designed to serve as personal assistants, Sanctuary Cognitive Systems Corporation announced it raised $75.5M in its first (and oversubscribed) funding round in March led by Bell Canada, with participation from workday Ventures, Verizon Ventures, SE Health, Magna International,Export Development Canada, and Evok Innovations.

The French mobile robot developer Exotec, which provides warehouse robots, has raised a whopping $335M in Series D funding at a valuation of $2BN led by Goldman Sachs in January 2022. To date, Exotec has raised a total of $446M and is a current leader in global warehouse robotics.

Bear Robotics raised $81M in Series B funding in March to accelerate the use of artificial intelligence-based automated robots that shuttle food, dishes and drinks as well as provide customer services in the hospitality industry. Bear Robotics has thus far raised $126M, including a $32M Series A funding led by SoftBank Capital in 2020.

With technology advancing at rapid speed, robotics is no longer being viewed as a pipe dream but as a very real and urgent solution to industries in medical, manufacturing, food, and warehouse fulfillment. Despite being slightly behind last year’s faster pace, more than $5BN has been raised in funding for robotics start-ups in the first five months of 2022. As the technology improves and robots become cheaper to produce, this tech sector finds itself propelled into mainstream investment portfolios, keeping VCs on their toes.