Robotics investments top $7.4B in October 2024

By Dan Kara | January 6, 2025

Robotics investments topped $7.4 billion for the month of October 2024, the result of 77 funding rounds. The investment total was led by Waymo’s $5.6 billion raise, which is the largest single round of the year through November.

October’s total was the largest through the first 10 months of the year. The previous monthly high was the $3.7 billion raised in September 2024. The total investment for the period of January through October 2024 was more than $20 billion.

Developers of autonomous driving technologies once again dominated the list of largest investments for the month. In addition to Waymo, WeRide ($320 million), Didi Woya ($298 million), Outrider ($62 million), and Vay ($37 million) also scored significant investments.

Waymo raised the $5.6 billion as it continues to scale its robotaxi service. Waymo is now provided 150,000-plus paid robotaxi rides per week across its early rider service in Austin and public services Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco. Waymo also recently announced its robotaxis are headed to Miami and Tokyo in 2025.

Developers of autonomous mobile robots, for a variety of applications, also fared well in October 2024. Examples include Dexory ($80 million), Carbon Robotics ($70 million), UBTech Robotics ($56 million), Simbe Robotics ($50 million), and FarmDroid ($11 million).

Companies located in the United States and China received the majority of the October 2024 investment rounds with 25 and 21, respectively. Companies based in the United States, propelled by Waymo’s $5.6 billion in funding, attracted the most investment with approximately $6.4 billion, while companies in China secured about $873 million.

October 2024 Robotics Investments

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.

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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.