Robotics investments recap – April 2021

The Robot Report tracked 38 robotics investments worth more than $4.8 billion in April 2021. This is quite the rebound from the same time last year when, amidst the uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, robotics companies raised about $600 million. This marks a 700-plus percent increase in robotics investments year-over-year. There also were eight mergers and acquisitions and one IPO in April 2021.

Robotics investments

The bulk of the funding in April 2021 came from two categories of robotics technologies – AS/RS systems and autonomous vehicles. AutoStore, a leading developer of AS/RS systems, raised $2.8 billion from Softbank, accounting for nearly half of the month’s total funding. Companies working on autonomous vehicles or autonomous vehicle technologies raised at least $839 million. San Francisco-based Cruise raised another $750 million for its work on autonomous vehicles, adding Walmart to its already impressive list of investors.

The table below lists robotics company fundings in millions of U.S. dollars, where amounts were publicly available. U.S.-based robotics companies accounted for 17 of the funding rounds, followed by China (6), India (3) and Israel (3).

Robotics Investments April 2021

Company	Type	M$	Country	Tech
EasyMile	Series B	66.7	France	Autonomous vehicles
Plus One Robotics	Series B	33	USA	Perception software
EAVISION	Series C	30	China	Agricultural drones
Scale AI	Series E	325	USA	Training data for machine learning
Manna Drone Delivery	Series A	25	Europe	Drone delivery
Groq	Series C	300	USA	Tensor processing unit
Deeplite	Seed	4	Canada	Neural network optimization
AutoStore	Other	2800	Norway	AS/RS
Memic Innovative Surgery	Series D	96	Israel	Surgical robots
Oxbotica	Series B	13.7	UK	Autonomous vehicle software
Canvas	Series B	24	USA	Construction robots
Cruise	Other	750	USA	Autonomous vehicles
Multiply Labs	Series A	20	USA	Manufacturing robots
Rapid Robotics	Series A	12	USA	Robots for manufacturing
Miko	Series B	6.6	India	Consumer robotics
Ottopia	Series A	9	Israel	Teleoperation
Tortuga AgTech	Series A	20	USA	Agricultural robots
Ronovo Surgical	Series A		China	Surgical robots
infiniDome	Seed	2.4	Israel	GPS security
Pickle Robot	Seed	5.8	USA	Package handling robots
Gaussian Robot	Series B	100	China	Cleaning robots
Unbox Robotics	Seed	1.2	India	Parcel sorting robots
CloudMinds	Series B	152.6	China	Cloud infrastructure
Mowito	Other		India	Mobile robot software
Reactive Robotics	Other		Germany	Robot-assisted therapy
MightyFly	Seed	5.1	USA	Autonomous aircraft
RoboticPlus.AI	Series B	20	China	Construction robots
Halodi Robotics	Other		Norway	Consumer robots
Above Robotics	Other		USA	Fleet management
Genesis Systems Group	Other	2.3	USA	Integrator
Robomart	Seed		USA	Autonomous vehicles
DroneSeed	Seed		USA	Forestry management
Hermes Robotics	Other		USA	Autonomous trucks
Ottonomy	Other		USA	Last-mile delivery
Robotto	Pre-Seed		Denmark	Drones
Liftians	Seed	0.25	USA	AGVs
Microsure	Series B	3.3	Netherlands	Surgical robots
EDDA Technology	Other	33	China	Surgical robots

Robotics Mergers & Acquisitions

April 2021 was a busy month for mergers and acquisitions (M&As), too. The Robot Report tracked 8 M&As worth at least $1.7 billion, including two via special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) or blank check companies.

Vicarious Surgical is going public through a $1.1 billion SPAC deal with Hong Kong–based D8 Holdings. The acquisition adds more than $425 million in cash to Vicarious’s balance sheet. This deal came about a year and a half after the FDA provided breakthrough device designation for Vicarious’ robot, which includes features such as arms that replicate human motion.

The capital-intensive autonomous vehicle industry continued to consolidate in April 2021. Toyota subsidiary Woven Planet Holdings acquired Lyft’s autonomous vehicle division, Level 5, for $550 million in cash. Lyft will receive $200 million upfront and $350 million of payments over a five-year period. Lyft launched Level 5 in 2017 and said that by 2021 “a majority” of its rides would take place in autonomous vehicles. Like predictions made by other autonomous vehicle companies, Lyft’s never came to fruition.

The table below lists the M&As from April 2021. Click on the “Story” links for more information about each of the M&As.

Mergers & Acquisitions - April 2021

Acquired Company	Acquirer	Amount ($M)	Technology	Story
Lyft Level 5	Woven Planet Holdings	550	Autonomous Vehicles	Story
Precise Automation	Brooks Automation	70	Cobots	Story
Mowbot	Robin Autopilot		Robotic lawnmowers	Story
13 Robotics Ltda	Kraken Robotics	0.22	Unmanned maritime systems	Story
Root AI	AppHarvest	60	Agriculture robotics	Story
Kyoto Robotics	Hitachi		Vision	Story
Vicarious Surgical	D8 Holdings	1100 (SPAC)	Surgical robots	Story
Sarcos Robotics	Rotor Acquisition Corp	SPAC	Exoskeletons	Story

IPO

And, amazingly, autonomous truck developer TuSimple raised $1.08 billion in an IPO after debuting on the Nasdaq on April 15. TuSimple said it has 5,700 reservations for self-driving trucks from Navistar that are scheduled to go into production in 2024, with 70 trucks already on the road in the U.S. and China.

Robotics IPOs - April 2021

Company	Amount ($M)	Tech
TuSimple	1000	Autonomous trucks

Editors’ 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 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, industry analysts, and association and industry publications, including Crunchbase PitchBook and Tracxn. 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.