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By Steve Crowe | November 1, 2024
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Fifty-five producers of robots and robotics enabling technologies raised funding in September 2024, pulling in a total of $3.7 billion. This is the highest monthly funding amount for 2024.
September’s investment exceeded June 2024’s total – the previous monthly leader – by over $1 billion and was more than 2.5 times the 12-month trailing average of $1.4 billion. The total investment targeted to robotics companies for January through September 2024 equals approximately $14.6 billion.
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The largest single robotics investment in September was a $2.2B post-IPO debt round from Aptiv, a developer of autonomous driving technologies. Aptiv’s funding accounted for nearly 60% of the monthly total.
Other companies attracting significant investment in September 2024 include Quicktron Robotics ($100M for mobile robots), Mendaera ($73M for robotic interventional platform), Seegrid ($50M for mobile robots), Quantum Systems ($40M for drones) and Pyka ($40M for autonomous electric aircraft).
Continuing a trend, makers of humanoid robots continued to attract sizable investment. Example companies receiving sizable funding amounts in September 2024 include Agibot, Unitree Robotics, Booster Robotics (Accelerating Evolution), Xinghaitu, Yobotics, and navel robotics.
Companies located in the United States and China received the majority of the September 2024 investment rounds with 17 and 14, respectively. Aptiv’s $2.2B round was large enough to boost Ireland into first place among countries receiving September 2024 investments. Firms based in China attracted the second most funding (approximately $1.2B), while companies in the U.S. secured a total of $335 million.
All funding classes were represented among September 2024’s investments. For both the total number of investments and the overall amount of funding, most rounds and investment amounts fell into the ‘Other’ category, a blanket term for investment types that fall outside the typical stages of funding that businesses go through.
| AgEagle Aerial Systems | $6,500,000 | Other | USA | Drones |
| Agibot | Estimate | Series A | China | Humanoids |
| AIDIN ROBOTICS | $11,226,313 | Series B | Korea | End Effectors |
| Aptiv | $2,200,000,000 | Other | Ireland | Autonomous Vehicles |
| Booster Robotics | $14,043,958 | Seed | China | Humanoids |
| Bot Auto | $20,000,000 | Seed | USA | Autonomous Vehicles |
| Darkhive | $21,000,000 | Series A | USA | Drones |
| Delta Robotics | $30,000 | Pre-Seed | USA | Motion Control |
| Diden Robotics | Estimate | Seed | Korea | Collaborative Robots |
| DRONUS | Estimate | Other | Italy | Drones |
| Enigma Aerospace | $120,000 | Pre-Seed | USA | Drones |
| Epica International | $18,000,000 | Other | USA | Articulated Robots |
| Forterra | $75,000,000 | Series B | USA | Sensors |
| Four Growers | $9,077,219 | Other | USA | Indoor Mobile Robots |
| Gideon Brothers | Estimate | Other | Croatia | Indoor Mobile Robots |
| Hong Jing Drive | Estimate | Series C | China | Sensors |
| HonuWorx | Estimate | Seed | UK | Underwater Drones |
| Inbolt | $16,677,118 | Series A | France | Sensors |
| Inspire-Robots | $14,262,690 | Series B | China | Grippers |
| Jaipur Robotics | $120,000 | Pre-Seed | Switzerland | Vision |
| Leap.AI (Leap Automation) | $10,568,802 | Other | UK | Collaborative Robots |
| Maritime Robotics | $12,000,000 | Other | Norway | Unmanned Surface Vehicles |
| Matternet | Estimate | Other | USA | Drones |
| Mendaera | $73,000,000 | Series B | USA | Surgical Robotics |
| Mengshi Technology | Estimate | Seed | China | Surgical Robotics |
| navel robotics | $752,742 | Seed | Germany | Humanoids |
| Navflex | $5,550,000 | Other | USA | Autonomous Forklifts |
| Noematrix | Estimate | Seed | China | Software |
| Open Ocean Robotics | $591,960 | Other | Canada | Unmanned Surface Vehicles |
| Optimotive | $2,000,000 | Seed | Canada | Outdoor Mobile Robots |
| Origin Robotics | $2,559,916 | Seed | Latvia | Drones |
| Pickommerce | $3,400,000 | Seed | Israel | Collaborative Robots |
| Puncture Robotic | Estimate | Series B | China | Surgical Robots |
| Pyka | $40,000,000 | Series B | USA | Drones |
| Quantum Systems | $40,538,674 | Series B | Germany | Drones |
| Quicktron Robotics | $100,000,000 | Series D | China | Outdoor Mobile Robots |
| Reactive Robotics | $2,779,838 | Other | Germany | Rehabilitation Robots |
| Roboligent | Estimate | Other | USA | Collaborative Robots |
| Seegrid | $50,000,000 | Series D | USA | Indoor Mobile Robots |
| Smooth Ag | $100,000 | Pre-Seed | USA | Outdoor Mobile Robots |
| Sniffer Robotics | $535,389 | Other | USA | Exoskeletons |
| Social Hardware International (Eclipse) | $400,000 | Seed | India | Articulated Robots |
| Swap Robotics | $8,877,238 | Other | Canada | Outdoor Mobile Robots |
| THOTH | $7,483,403 | Seed | Korea | Collaborative Robots |
| TrashBotics | Estimate | Pre-Seed | India | Articulated Robots |
| Triorb | $1,757,515 | Series B | Japan | Indoor Mobile Robots |
| Unitree Robotics | Estimate | Series C | China | Humanoids |
| W8less | $500,000 | Other | USA | Software |
| WARGdrones | Estimate | Pre-Seed | Germany | Drones |
| Weier Intelligent Drive | Estimate | Other | China | Motion Control |
| Xinghaitu | Estimate | Other | China | Humanoids |
| Xingmai Innovation | Estimate | Series A | China | Underwater Drones |
| Yihang.ai | Estimate | Series C | China | Sensors |
| Yobotics | Estimate | Other | China | Humanoids |
What defines robotics investments?
The answer to this 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.
Investments
Robotics investments should come from venture capital firms, corporate investment groups, angel investors, and other sources. Friends-and-family investments, government/non-governmental agency grants, and crowdsourced funding are excluded.
Robotics 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 several 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.
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