Listen to this article

The Robot Report tracked 37 robotics investments that totaled at least $1.14 billion in funding in July 2021. There also were 9 mergers and acquisitions worth at least $1.58 billion for the month.

The largest round of the month went to Chinese company Meituan, which raised $400 million from Tencent in a stock offering. Meituan, a consumer services company, intends to use the funding to develop autonomous vehicles and drones for local delivery services.

Here is a breakdown of the funding types for June 2021, in order of most to least: Series A (6), Seed (9), Series C (3), Series B (3), Series D (1) and other (12).

U.S.-based companies accounted for 19 funding rounds in July 2021, while China had the second-most at 4. Canada, India, and Germany each had three robotics companies funded. The table below lists robotics company fundings in millions of U.S. dollars, where amounts were publicly available. If more of the funding amounts become available, we will update the chart.

Robotics Investments July 2021

Company	Round	Amount ($M)	Country	Tech
inVia Robotics	Series C	30	USA	Logistics robots
Untether AI	Venture	125	Canada	Computing
Covariant	Series C	80	USA	Logistics robots
Path Robotics	Series C	100	USA	Robotic welding
HaptX	Series A	12	USA	Haptics
Skylark Drones	Seed	3	India	Unmanned aerial vehicles
Keyi Technology	Series B		China	Consumer robots
XYZ Robotics	Series B	35	USA	Logistics robots
Augmentus	Seed		Singapore	Software
Venti Technologies	Seed	8	China	Autonomous driving
Kraken Robotics	Post-IPO Equity	10	Canada	Unmanned underwater vehicles
Pickle Robot	Corporate		USA	Logistics robots
Fernride	Series A	7.1	Germany	Teleoperation
Vantage Robotics	Debt Financing	2	USA	Unmanned aerial vehicles
OMNIQ	Post-IPO Equity	15	USA	Computer vision
Picnic	Series A	4.2	USA	Food robots
Burro	Venture	6	USA	Agricultural robots
DaVinci Kitchen	Equity Crowdfunding	0.5	Germany	Food robots
Luxonis	Seed	2	USA	Computer vision
Locomation	Convertible Note	40	USA	Autonomous driving
Udacity	Secondary Market	4.4	USA	Education
ALBA Robot	Debt Financing		Italy	Autonomous driving
Skycart	Seed		USA	Delivery drones
Swaayatt Robots	Seed	3	India	Autonomous driving
Cyberdontics	Seed	4	USA	Healthcare robots
Ghost Robotics	Series D	100	USA	Autonomous driving
Algolux	Series B	18.4	Canada	Computer vision
Re-Gen Robotics		5.5	Ireland	Tank cleaning robots
Digital Dream Labs	Equity Crowdfunding	1	USA	Consumer robots
Verve Motion	Series A	15	USA	Exoskeletons
Mov.ai	Seed	3	Portugal	Software
Noyes Technologies	Seed	3.8	Germany	Logistics robots
Neuro42	Series A	6.5	USA	Surgical robots
Freetech	Series A	100	China	Autonomous driving
Meuitan		400	China	Autonomous driving/drones
Dangot Computers		7.6	Israel	Logistics robots
Ati Motors	Pre-Series A	3.5	India	Logistics robots

Robotics mergers & acquisitions

There were 9 mergers and acquisitions in July 2021. One of these acquisitions took place via special purpose acquisition companies or SPAC. Aurora, a developer of autonomous vehicle technology, merged with Reinvent Technology Partners Y in a $1 billion deal. The combined company, which will be named Aurora Innovation Inc. and trade on the NASDAQ with the symbol “AUR,” is reportedly valued at $13 billion.

SPACs have become a hot investment mechanism in robotics, as well as many other industries. Berkshire Grey, Sarcos Robotics, Vicarious Surgical, and a slew of LiDAR companies, have or will also be going public via SPACs.

Two companies developing autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) were acquired. Zebra Technologies kicked off the month with the purchase of Fetch Robotics for $290 million. Fetch Robotics generates annualized run-rate sales of approximately $10 million. And ASTI Mobile Robotics, a Spanish company, was acquired by industrial robot leader ABB for an undisclosed amount.

Novanta, a precision photonics and motion control company, made two acquisitions. It first acquired motion control provider Schneider Electric Motion USA for $115 million in cash. One week later, it acquired end of arm tooling leader ATI Industrial Automation for $172 million cash.

Acquirer	Acquired Company	Amount ($M)	Tech	Story
Zebra Technologies	Fetch Robotics	290	Logistics robots	Read Story
Integrity Implants	Fusion Robotics		Surgical robots	Read Story
enVista	HCM Systems		Systems integrator	Read Story
Novanta	Schneider Electric Motion USA	115	Motion Control	Read Story
Red Cat Holdings	Teal Drones		Unmanned aerial vehicles	Read Story
Toyota	Carmera		Autonomous driving	Read Story
Reinvent Technology Partners Y	Aurora	1000 (SPAC)	Autonomous driving	Read Story
Novanta	ATI Industrial Automation	172	End of arm tooling	Read Story
ABB	ASTI Mobile Robotics		Logistics robots	Read Story

Editor’s Note: This article was updated on August 10, 2021 at 11:45 Eastern with the addition of Ati Motors’ investment.