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Robotics investments recap: July 2019

By Eugene Demaitre | August 1, 2019

Robotics investments recap: July 2019

In July 2019, CloudMinds filed for a $500 million IPO. Source: CloudMinds

In July 2019, the number of robotics transactions may have dropped, but the total amount increased. The Robot Report tracked more than $10.1 billion in deals worldwide, up from $1.1 billion in June 2019 and $1.6 billion in June 2018.

Multi-billion-dollar investments in Argo AI by Volkswagen and Open AI by Microsoft, as well as an offering from surgical robotics provider Medtronic, no doubt bumped up last month’s total. There were 22 fundings in July 2019, compared with 42 in the previous month and 27 a year ago. (See also the 20 largest robotics investments in the first half of 2019.)

Technology for self-driving cars and robots and intelligent systems in healthcare were the big winners in July 2019. They were followed by supply chain automation, software and artificial intelligence, and service and consumer robots.

There was little investment activity around robots for manufacturing, as automakers face slowing demand and recession worries persist. Teradyne Inc., which owns Danish cobot maker Universal Robots and Mobile Industrial Robot, cited the slowdown in its quarterly earnings call.

“The automotive supply chain remains a large component of robot sales, and weakness in this sector has been difficult to overcome,” said Mark Jagiela, CEO and president of Teradyne.

China also reduced its investments, noted DealStreet Asia, and U.S. gross domestic product has slowed.

At the same time, venture capital activity hit new highs last quarter, according to PitchBook, and robotics stock values have increased, reported ROBO Global. SoftBank Group Corp.’s second Vision Fund of $108 billion includes Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc. as investors looking for emerging technologies.

The table below lists investments in millions of U.S. dollars where they were available:

CompanyAmt. (M$)TypeLead investor, partnerDateTechnology
Activ Surgical13investmentJuly 5, 2019surgical robots
Argo AI2600investmentVolkswagen AGJuly 11, 2019self-driving cars
Attabotics25Series BCoatue, Comcast Ventures, HoneywellJuly 30, 2019automated storage/retrieval system
CloudMinds Technology Inc.500IPOCitigroup, JP Morgan, IBS Investment BankJuly 12, 2019cloud-based AI for service robots
CMC Corp.32.3share saleSamsung SDSJuly 31, 2019industrial automation
Connected Robotics Inc.7.82Series AGlobal Brain Corp.July 8, 2019cooking robots
Emotix (RN Chidakashi Technologies Pvt. Ltd.)2.7seedIDG Ventures India Fund III, Chiratae TrustJuly 12, 2019social robot
Exyn Technologies Inc.16Series ACentricus, Yamaha Motor Ventures & Laboratory Silicon ValleyJuly 11, 2019autonomous drones, robots
Fetch Robotics46Series CFort Ross VenturesJuly 23, 2019autonomous mobile robots
Freedom Robotics Inc.6.6seedInitialized CapitalJuly 23, 2019cloud-based fleet management
Gaiya Environmental14.5Series BHongxin CapitalJuly 18, 2019pollution remediation
Geek+ Inc.150Series C1GGV Capital, D1 Capital PartnersJuly 10, 2019autonomous mobile robots
iFlytek407investmentChina Asset ManagementJuly 18, 2019AI, service robots
Knightscope Inc.IPOJuly 24, 2019security robots
Luminar Technologies Inc.100investmentG2VPJuly 11, 2019lidar for self-driving cars
Medtronic5000tender offersJuly 11, 2019surgical robots
MetoMotion1.5investmentJuly 31, 2019greenhouse robot
Neocis30investmentNorwest Venture PartnersJuly 16, 2019surgical robots
OpenAI1000investmentMicrosoft Corp.July 22, 2019Azure AI
Recogni Inc.25Series AGreatPoint VenturesJuly 31, 2019self-driving cars
RoadBotics7.5Series ARadical VenturesJuly 16, 2019self-driving cars
ROYBI4.2seedJuly 2, 2019educational
Tier IV Inc.100Series ASompo Japan Nipponkoa InsuranceJuly 5, 2019self-driving cars
Virtual Incision Corp.1debt financingBluestem Capital Co., Prairie Gold Venture PartnersJuly 3, 2019surgical robots
ZongMu Technology14.57Series C+Qualcomm VenturesJuly 2, 2019self-driving cars

There were eight mergers and acquisitions in July 2019, compared with seven in June and more than occurred a year ago. We’ve also compiled a list of the top 10 most notable acquisitions of the year so far.

CompanyAmt. (M$)Partner, acquirerDateTechnology
AtracysSmith & NephewJuly 1surgical robots
AutoLap47Great Belief International Ltd.July 10laparoscopic surgery
Mapper.aiVelodyne Lidar Inc.July 23self-driving cars
Melown TechnologiesHexagon GeosystemsJuly 1machine vision
Quantum Signal AIFord Motor Co.July 30simulation software
Robin AutopilotFahey GroupJuly 8robotic lawnmower
Schölly FiberopticIntuitive SurgicalJuly 15surgical robots
Zhongchai Holding Ltd.76Greenland Acquisition Corp.July 12logistics transmission

Autonomous vehicles keep revving up

As mentioned above, one of the top deals in July 2019 was Volkswagen’s $2.6 billion investment into Argo AI as part of its partnership with Ford Motor Corp. Argo AI, which will include Volkswagen’s Autonomous Intelligent Driving unit, will continue developing self-driving cars. Both automakers also have other deals with other robotics, AI, and autonomous systems companies.

Although massive numbers of self-driving cars aren’t quite around the corner for 2020, investors are supporting software and hardware development. In 2025, 8 million vehicles, with 36 million lidar units worth $7.2 billion, will ship with SAE Level 3 or 4 autonomy, predicts ABI Research. The total market for autonomous vehicles could reach $667.7 billion by 2026, it said.

Open-source self-driving software startup Tier IV Inc. raised $100 million in its Series A funding round, as did lidar maker Luminar Technologies Inc.

Yesterday, Toyota AI Ventures and BMW i Ventures participated in the $25 million Series A for Recogni Inc., which is using a “Vision Cognition Processor” for efficiently changing the trajectory of autonomous vehicles. RoadBotics closed a $7.5 million Series A as it develops computer vision for road assessment.

Also in navigation and machine vision, Velodyne Lidar Inc. acquired Mapper.ai, and Hexagon Geosystems acquired Melown Technologies. Ford Motor Co. picked up simulation software firm Quantum Signal AI. No amounts were specified.

Processor makers are also interested in the race for autonomous transportation. Qualcomm Ventures and Lenovo Group’s Legend Capital participated in the $14.5 million Series C round for advanced driver assistance system company ZongMu Technology.

Surgical robots get cash infusion

Our sibling site Mass Device reported on the approximately $5 billion debt tender offer by Medtronic PLC, which sells the Mazor X and is working on a new surgical robot.

It was a long way down to the next biggest healthcare robotics transaction, Great Belief International Ltd.’s $47 million acquisition of AutoLap from TransEnterix Inc. AutoLap makes a laparoscopic surgical positioning system.

Neocis raised $30 million for its Yomi robot-assisted dental surgery device, and Activ Surgical raised $13 million for its Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot.

Virtual Incision Corp., which is working on systems for abdominal procedures, raised $1 million in debt financing from Bluestem Capital Co. and Prairie Gold Venture Capital.

Other surgical robotics leaders were involved in deals with unspecified amounts in July 2019. Intuitive Surgical acquired Schölly Fiberoptic, and Smith & Nephew bought optical tracking camera maker Atracys.

Supply chain automation stays in the loop

China’s Geek+ Inc., whose autonomous mobile robots entered the U.S. market last year, raised $150 million in Series C1 funding.

More familiar to American warehouses, Fetch Robotics had a $46 million Series C. Greenland Acquisition picked up Zongchai Holding, which makes logistics transmissions, for $76 million.

Attabotics, which has developed a “3D supply chain system,” raised $25 million in its Series B round. (I spoke with Attabotics’ CEO today about his innovative approach and will post an article about our conversation soon.)

Service and consumer robots in July 2019

Admittedly, this category is a bit of a catchall this month, including robots for cleaning up pollution, securing facilities, and moving lawns. Still, the $500 million initial public offering (IPO) of CloudMinds Technology Inc., is nothing to dismiss. It is working on cloud-based AI to make service robots smarter and more useful.

iFlytek, which is working on speech recognition that could also be used in customer-service robots, raised $407 million.

In field robotics, Gaiya Environmental, whose robot is designed for pollution remediation, had a $14.4 million Series B round. Fahey Group acquired Robin Autopilot, which provides robotic lawn mowing and is moving from Dallas to Cleveland. MetoMotion raised $1.5 million from an unnamed Dutch partner for its Greenhouse Robotic Worker.

Also this past month, security robot maker Knightscope Inc. filed for an IPO. Global Brain Corp. participated in the $7.82 million Series A round for cooking robot business Connected Robotics Inc.

ROYBI, an AI-powered educational robot, got seed round support of $4.2 million as it gets ready for launch. Social robot maker Emotix raised seed funding of $2.7 million from IDG Ventures and others.

While it’s not a robotics transaction, iRobot Corp.’s announcement of reduced full-year guidance, which it blamed on U.S.-China trade tensions, is indicative of the challenges facing consumer robotics and other industries.

Software and AI in July 2019

Most technology analysts agree that artificial general intelligence is a ways off, but Microsoft is a believer, investing $1 billion in OpenAI, which will work in Microsoft’s Azure platform. The companies said they hope to develop AI for social benefit.

Freedom Robotics Inc., whose cloud-based software-development infrastructure is intended for fleet management and more, closed a $6.6 million seed round. The company’s founders explained that they’re working for wide-scale interoperability, putting power back in the hands of robotics developers and supervisors.

https://www.freedomrobotics.ai/careers

Freedom Robotics’ RMS combines robotics tools to help developers and robotics managers. Source: Freedom Robotics

Yamaha Motor Ventures was among the investors in Exyn Technologies Inc.’s $16 million Series A. Exyn is building autonomy software for aerial drones for the defense and energy industries.

The notable failure of July 2019 is the shutdown of Acutronic Robotics, which was developing a Hardware Robot Operating System and was unable to agree to an acquisition.


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, 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.

About The Author

Eugene Demaitre

Eugene Demaitre is editorial director of the robotics group at WTWH Media. He was senior editor of The Robot Report from 2019 to 2020 and editorial director of Robotics 24/7 from 2020 to 2023. Prior to working at WTWH Media, Demaitre was an editor at BNA (now part of Bloomberg), Computerworld, TechTarget, and Robotics Business Review.

Demaitre has participated in robotics webcasts, podcasts, and conferences worldwide. He has a master's from the George Washington University and lives in the Boston area.

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