Robotics investments top $1.63B in April 2023

Robotics investments totaled $1.63 billion in April 2023 as a result of 47 investments (see Table 1 below or download Table 1 HERE). The April investments bring the 2023 robotics funding total to approximately $3.3 billion. Investments totaled $526 million in March 2023, $620 million in February 2023 and $521 million in January 2023. 

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Table 1: April 2023 Robotics Funding and Investment

Company	Amount	Round	Country	Tech-Prod-Service	Description
42dot	$782,791,615	Other	South Korea	Autonomous Transportation Systems	42dot offers self-driving software and hardware solutions that enable and support autonomous mobility.
aiEndoscopic	$557,040	Seed	Switzerland	Surgical / Interventional Systems	aiEndoscopic is developing robotics systems for endoscopic tracheal intubation.
allocortech	$75,000	Grant	USA	Actuators / Motors / Servos, Controllers	Allocortech provides products for avionics, control systems, and general embedded systems for UAS and UAM aircraft applications.
ARTIAL	$120,000	Pre-Seed	USA	Operator Services, Data Acquisition / Processing / Management	ARTIAL provides drone-based inspection solutions for the construction, energy, and infrastructure sectors.
Baraja	Estimate	Other	Australia	Sensors / Sensing Systems	Baraja produces LiDAR technologies for self-driving vehicles.
Bottobo	$1,000	Seed	Turkey	Indoor Mobile Platforms	Bottobo produces fully automated and self-contained warehouse robots and intelligent systems.
Carbon Robotics	$30,000,000	Series C	USA	Outdoor Mobile Platforms, Sensors / Sensing Systems	Carbon Robotics develops robots for agriculture-related applications.
Covariant	$75,000,000	Series C	USA	Software, Sensors / Sensing Systems	Covariant provides a number of software solutions that automate pick-and-place processes at warehouses and fulfillment centers.
Crow Industries	$120,000	Pre-Seed	USA	Outdoor Mobile Platforms	Crow Industries provides robotics enabled geomatics services to the mining industry.
Daedalean	Estimate	Grant	Switzerland	Software, Sensors / Sensing Systems	Daedalean is building autonomous piloting software systems for aerial mobility.
Delivery One	$6,374,924	Other	Turkey	Drones, Operator Services	Delivery One provides last-mile delivery solutions using drones and other technologies.d quality.
Distalmotion	$150,192,209	Other	Switzerland	Surgical / Interventional Systems	Distalmotion produces a surgical robot called Dexter.
Embotech	Estimate	Grant	Switzerland	Software	Embotech provides software solutions that enable driverless mobility.
Hydromea	Estimate	Grant	Switzerland	Unmanned Underwater Vehicles	Hydromea provides underwater drones for submerged asset inspections.
Infcom	$14,543,339	Series B	China	Actuators / Motors / Servos	Infcom Industrial produces servo drives, servo motors, and related software.
infiniDome	$9,000,000	Series A	Israel	Sensors / Sensing Systems, Networking / Connectivity	infiniDome develops GPS protection solutions for drones.
iotaMotion	$8,509,999	Other	USA	Surgical / Interventional Systems	IotaMotion is developing robotics-assisted solutions for cochlear implant surgery.
Keybotic	$3,309,479	Seed	Spain	Quadrupeds	Keybotic is a designer and manufacturer of autonomous four-legged robots for monitoring, inspecting, and mapping of complex environments.
Kind Humanoid	$150,000	Pre-Seed	USA	Humanoids / Bipeds	Kind Humanoid is developing intelligent humanoid robots.
Kuxun Intelligent	Estimate	Series A	China	Indoor Mobile Platforms, Automated Guide Vehicles, Autonomous Forklifts	Kuxun Intelligent produces a variety of mobile robots for warehousing operations.
Leial Technologies	Estimate	Other	Spain	Articulated Robots, Educational / Kits	Leial Technologies is an educational robotics supplier.
LogiXair	Estimate	Other	The Netherlands	Drones, Operator Services	LogiXair provides unmanned aircraft based logistics using autonomous flying cargo systems.
Lukai Zhixing	Estimate	Series A	China	Outdoor Mobile Platforms, Autonomous Transportation Systems	Lukai Zhixing is a unmanned vehicle solution provider focused on the field of smart mining operations.
May Mobility	$3,000,000	Grant	USA	Autonomous Transportation Systems, Sensors / Sensing Systems, Software	May Mobility provides autonomous vehicle technology for commercial fleets.
Nanoflex Robotics	Estimate	Grant	Switzerland	Surgical / Interventional Systems	Nanoflex Robotics provides robotics solutions for the treatment of ischemic stroke.
Naurobotics	$3,036,698	Series A	South Korea	Articulated Robots, SCARA Robots, End Effectors	Naurobotics offers robotic automation systems and griping technology.
Padbot Telepresence	Estimate	Series B	China	Indoor Mobile Platforms	Padbot Robot, a service robot brand of Inbot Tech, produces a number of commercial delivery robots, security patrol robots, and cleaning and disinfection robots.
ParaWave	Estimate	Grant	USA	Drones	ParaWave is developing drone technology to assist first responders.
Perceptual Robotics	$3,355,558	Other	City of	Drones, Operator Services, Data Acquisition / Processing / Management	Perceptual Robotics offers drone based inspection services for wind turbine inspection and other infrastructure applications.
Perceptyne Robots	$723,563	Seed	India	Humanoids / Bipeds, Arms/Manipulators	Perceptyne Robots is developing dexterous robotics systems that can automatate various industrial tasks.
Phantom Auto	$25,000,000	Other	USA	Operator Services	Phantom Auto offers teleoperation safety solutions and remote operations for logistics vehicles.
Propeller Aero	$15,272,472	Other	Australia	Drones, Operator Services, Data Acquisition / Processing / Management	Propeller provides drone-mapping and analytics solutions for worksite operations.
Reakto	$1,163,022	Seed	Poland	Operator Services, Data Acquisition / Processing / Management	Reakto is a manufacturer and operator of UAV systems that provide securiy services.
Roboto AI	$4,800,000	Seed	USA	Data Acquisition / Processing / Management	Roboto AI provides technology that accelerates the search, transformation, and analysis of robotics data.
Robust.AI	$20,000,000	Series A	USA	Indoor Mobile Platforms, Software, Sensors / Sensing Systems	Robust.AI manufactures robots for warehouse operations.
Rogue Space Systems	Estimate	Other	USA	Other Commercial	Rogue Space Systems develop robots to deliver services solutions to satellite operators, manufacturers and insurers.
SensorSurf	$500,000	Pre-Seed	USA	Data Acquisition / Processing / Management, Software	Snowflake offers softwar for collecting, manipulationing and analyzing robotics data.
Sniffer Robotics	$2,000,000	Seed	USA	Exoskeletons	Sniffer Robotics provides the municipal solid waste industry drone base services for methane gas detection and analysis.
Surgerii Technology	Estimate	Series C	China	Surgical / Interventional Systems	Surgerii Technology is a developer of minimally invasive surgical robots.
Veo Robotics	$14,000,000	Series B	USA	Sensors / Sensing Systems, Software	Veo Robotics provides solutions that enable high performance, collaborative industrial robotics.
Wenshi Robot	$14,543,339	Series A	China	Indoor Mobile Platforms, Other Industrial	Wenshi Robot produces a variety of autonomous mobile robots for use in the logistics sector.
wheel.me	$14,072,056	Other	Norway	Indoor Mobile Platforms	wheel.me produces technologies that transforms anything into an autonomous mobile robot with minimal effort and without the need to alter its design or form.
WIRobotics	$3,006,624	Seed	South Korea	Exoskeletons	WIRobotics produces wearable robots that lessen physical demands on bodies while still allowing for active motion.
Xiangke Intelligence	$5,808,044	Other	China	Software	Xiangke Intelligence, a spinoff of Tsinghua University and Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, is developing AI enabled robotics systems.
Yunchuang Zhixing	Estimate	Series A	China	Outdoor Mobile Platforms, Software	Yunchuang Zhixing produces autonomous, outdoor sweeping vehicles and remote management control platforms.
Zanecon	$14,442,935	Series A	China	Articulated Robots	Zanecon produces a variety of robotics solutions for the construction sector.
Zipline	$330,000,000	Series E	USA	Drones	Zipline designs, manufactures, and operates drones that deliver medical products.

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U.S.-based robotics companies landed the most rounds (17) and funding ($514M) in April. Chinese and Swiss firms also received substantial funding ($104M and $165M, respectively). See Figure 1 below.

It should be noted that South Korea, an outlier having a single company receiving funding, was included in the ‘Other’ category. However, that company, 42dot, a provider of self-driving software and hardware solutions for autonomous transportation, received a substantial funding amount of $783 million. Other sizable April 2023 robotics investments include Zipline ($330 million), Distalmotion ($150 million), Covariant ($75 million), Carbon Robotics ($30 million), Phantom Auto ($25 million) and Robust.AI ($20 million).

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Figure 1: April 2023 Robotics Investment by Country

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Early investments (Pre-Seed, Seed and A rounds) accounted for most of the investments (42%). In terms of investment amounts, rounds deemed ‘Other’ attached most of the funding dollars. A single Series C round (Zipline, $330M) accounted for 20% of April 2023’s funding totals.

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Figure 2: April 2023 Robotics Funding Amounts by Investment Type

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Figure 3: April 2023 Robotics Funding Amounts by Investment Number and Amounts

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Editor’s 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 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, market research firms, 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 and estimates are made where investment amounts are not provided or are unclear.