More robot startup 'fails' and the latest investment figures

Plus 2025 robotics conference locations and more humanoid robot companies

ROSCon 2024 in Odense was great - it’s the ideal size (approx 1000) and a fun technical and diverse conference. Also Odense is one of the most livable cities I’ve ever seen. Congratulations to the whole Open Robotics team who have intentionally created/curated an amazing community. ROSCon 2025 will be in Singapore!

ROSCon 2024 was followed by ROS Industrial and ICSR, the International Conference on Social Robots “Empowering Humanity: The Role of Social and Collaborative Robots in Shaping our Future”. There were some familiar robot platforms from companies like PAL Robotics and Furhat, and also some newer social robotics platforms like Haru from Honda Research Institute and the two-legged AI robot from LG (image at top), which launched at CES 2024.

The NSF funded open source Quori 2.0 platform won the ICSR Modular Robotics Design Award. Following on from the success of the initial Quori social robot distribution, the modular 2.0 Quoris will also be distributed to research labs to enable replicability in social robotics research. I also had a wonderful short detour to Warsaw for Masters & Robots, which is getting bigger and better each year.

$10 Billion Robotics Funding for 2024

Quick look at my lists… 695 deals worth just under $10 B with cumulative funding of $45 Billion. Pretty healthy! in spite of it still being ‘hard to raise money for hardware’.

We’ve had to postpone the SVR Robotics Investor Summit from Nov 1 to Jan 30, however, there are several other new events and we’ll be doing some virtual startup networking in November. The soft launch of Circuit Launch Mountain View is now Dec 7th with DIY Robocars and a Brazilian BBQ ! Plus we have startup booth options for you at Humanoids Summit Dec 11-12 and the SVR/IEEE RAS “Manufacturing for Robotics Startups” workshop on Dec 13.

#CircuitLaunchMountainView #Bots&Beer #Humanoids #HumanoidsSummit #Robocars #DIYRobocars #BrazilianBBQ #CircuitLaunch #SiliconValleyRobotics

The new Circuit Launch Mountain View (and Silicon Valley Robotics HQ2) is at 599 Fairchild Dr Mountain View. It was the home of Hacker Dojo and then Boston Dynamics! And also where Silicon Valley Robotics had our first office.

Humanoids Summit - First exhibitors and speakers Announced!

Silicon Valley Robotics is proud to be the strategic advisor for the first Humanoids Summit, Dec 11th and 12th at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View.

The first speakers to be announced include Jonathan Hurst from Agility Robotics. You’ll also meed 1X, Apptronik, Kind Humanoids, Engineered Arts, Enchanted Tools and Hanson Robotics. And we’re just getting started.

The Summit has expanded to three tracks in order to accommodate more stellar speakers and exhibitors, and if you’re a Silicon Valley Robotics member you get a great discount on exhibiting and attending.

SVR Investor Summit:

Apologies for the delay updating you, but we aren't quite ready to move ahead with the Silicon Valley Robotics Investor Summit on Nov 1st with the new location in Mountain View, although we've 'soft launched' CLMV for new members/tenants.

Instead of the in person summit, on Nov 1st we will start virtual outreach our investor community with your short startup profiles - with your permission and after we confirm details with each of you.

ALL registrations will also forward to Jan 30th 2025. Please ignore the accepted/pending/notaccepted as we update Luma.

Jobs in Robotics!

We’ll be posting more jobs in robotics every month from Silicon Valley Robotics member companies (I think the click rate from our first run was pretty good). Our readers are primarily robotics professionals and the variation of clicks between different jobs show that people were being selective about what jobs they wanted to apply for.

Please send me your job links! BEFORE NEXT ISSUE!

More robotics startup failures

CB Insights has summarized some recent high profile/high value startup failures, including some in the robotics automation space - particularly self-driving.

XACT Robotics

XACT's technology was developed by Prof. Moshe Shoham of the Technion, on the basis of which Mazor Robotics was also founded, which was sold to Medtronic for $1.64 billion. The article below also has some interesting specific comments from sources involved with the situation.

Title: XACT Robotics shuts down, lays off 65

Product: XACT Robotics

XACT Robotics — a medical robotics startup — shut down at the start of September. The company was focused on the development of autonomous robots that enabled hands-free surgical procedures. Its technology showed promise, receiving FDA approval in 2019 and drawing millions of dollars over 4 funding rounds. However, it ultimately could not generate sufficient revenue. This, in combination with the inability to raise capital and a failed acquisition play, spelled the end for XACT.

According to Globes, 

“A source close to the company told “Globes” that…XACT Robotics…failed to generate significant revenue…

…At the same time, XACT Robotics began talks to be bought by an international company but last week learned that an acquisition is no longer on the agenda. Meanwhile, the company has been unable to raise capital and is on the brink of insolvency. As soon as the shareholders received the negative response from the international company, they decided to close down XACT Robotics.”

Resson

Title: Mahindra & Mahindra’s Canada-based associate firm Resson Aerospace winds up operations

Product: Resson

Resson — a Canada-based associate firm of India-based auto manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra  — closed down in September. The agtech’s solution brought together drones, data analytics, sensor tech, and robotic platforms to support crop management for growers. The company got its start participating in Nvidia’s Inception Program, which offers resources to support product development and growth. Despite bringing in $25M in funding and achieving a $52M valuation, it was abruptly shut down. Its dissolution came as a surprise, with some speculating that diplomatic tension between India and Canada played a contributing role.

According to The Economic Times,

“A Canada-based associate firm of Mahindra & Mahindra, Resson Aerospace Corporation, has wound up its operations, according to an exchange filing from the Indian auto major.

The dissolution means that the Canadian firm no longer exists, with Mahindra receiving compensation for the Class C preferred shares it held in the company.”

Zume 

Title: The $500 million robot pizza startup you never heard of has shut down, report says

Product: Zume

Softbank-backed Zume shut down in June 2023, after 8 years in business. The startup initially drew $446M to disrupt the pizza industry — the plan was to equip delivery trucks with robotic pizza-makers and smart ovens so that pizzas could be cooked to order while en route to customers. However, the startup ran into a number of technological issues, like cheese sliding off pizzas, and burned through cash faster than it could generate revenue. After pivoting to sustainable packaging development in 2020, it did not raise any additional funding and eventually closed its doors.

According to Business Insider,

“Zume, the robot pizza delivery startup that raised close to $500 million, has shut down, The Information reported…

…Zume had struggled with problems like stopping melted cheese from sliding off its pizzas while they cooked in moving trucks, per Bloomberg. Its difficulties led to a string of high-profile departures and financial problems.”

Argo AI

Title: Ford, VW-backed Argo AI is shutting down

Product: Argo AI 

Autonomous vehicle startup Argo AI shut down at the end of October. Having just launched a suite of commercial delivery and robotaxi solutions the month prior, the news came as a surprise to many that had been watching Argo’s rise to prominence. In 2017, just a year after it was founded, the company emerged from stealth with a $1B capital commitment from Ford. Two years later, it entered the unicorn club with a $7.3B valuation. In the time that followed, the company reportedly found it difficult to secure new investors amid slow progress toward the commercialization of autonomous driving technology. This led Ford and Volkswagen, its main backers, to shift their strategic focus away from the startup.

According to TechCrunch,

“Ford said in its third-quarter earnings report released Wednesday that it made a strategic decision to shift its resources to developing advanced driver assistance systems, and not autonomous vehicle technology that can be applied to robotaxis…

…That decision appears to have been fueled by Argo’s inability to attract new investors. Ford CEO Jim Farley acknowledged that the company anticipated being able to bring autonomous vehicle technology broadly to market by 2021.

‘But things have changed, and there’s a huge opportunity right now for Ford to give time — the most valuable commodity in modern life — back to millions of customers while they’re in their vehicles,’ said Farley.”

Fifth Season Collection

Title: Vertical farming robotics startup Fifth Season shuts down

Product: Fifth Season Collection

October also saw the fall of vertical farming robotics startup Fifth Season Collection. The company’s use of robotics tech to grow greens for salad kits sold at grocery stores attracted $35M in Series A funding from Drive Capital among others. While the company did not release a statement at the time of closure, reports suggested that the startup could have struggled to raise the capital needed to support its capital-heavy operating model amid economic turbulence. 

According to Pittsburgh Inno, 

“According to multiple sources familiar with the matter, the revenue-producing startup officially closed its doors on Friday. It employed about 100 workers, most of whom reported to its headquarters in The Highline building on the South Side while others worked out of its 60,000-square-foot indoor farming facility in Braddock.”

Brodmann17

Title: Computer vision technology startup Brodmann17 has shut down

Product: Brodmann17

Computer vision tech startup Brodmann17 shut down at the beginning of December. The company’s goal was to create lightweight, software-based computer vision technology (free from traditional hardware requirements) that could support advanced driver assistance systems and ultimately compete with autonomous driving tech co Mobileye’s solutions. While it raised more than $16M in pursuit of its goals, it found it difficult to raise fresh capital after its Series A round in 2019. Without a much-needed injection of funding, the company was forced to close its doors despite — per a statement by CEO Adi Pinhas — having proven the technology, seeing demand, and having customers in production.

TechCrunch reported on the shutdown,

“Brodmann17 applied its technology to blind-spot wing cameras, surround and rear cameras, video telematics and even two wheelers, [Brodmann17 CEO Adi Pinhas] said.

‘The demand in the market is far more diversified than people think,’ he said. ‘We decided to take the road not taken by many other companies in the ecosystem. We just needed more time.’

The startup did attract investors during its lifetime…But the company struggled to get new funding. Even though the team was ‘very lean,’ with fewer than 30 people, Pinhas said it was impossible to continue without support from private and corporate venture capital firms. He added that ‘everyone’ is waiting for next year and for something to happen before making more investments.”

Send me your community news to share!

Robot News

a close-up look at the present - and future - of humanoid robots - WSJ

Robotics Startup Discusses $2 Billion Valuation Months After Founding - The Information (paywalled? tldr it’s Physical Intelligence from Sergey Levine and Chelsea Finn)

Robotics Startups Hope the AI Era Means Their Time Has Come - Bloomberg

The Next AI Wave Is Here! What is an “Embodied AI robot”? Interview with Hao Su, the cofounder and CTO of Hillbot AI - AsiaTechDaily

AI-powered humanoid robots are closer than we think, says NVIDIA exec - TechRadar

The Three Computer Solution: Powering the Next Wave of AI Robotics - NVIDIA

Self-Checkout on the Outs, Google Search Kind of Sucks, and More - Gizmodo

How San Francisco Learned to Love Self-driving Cars - WSJ

This New 3D Ultrasonic Technology Is Going To Change How Robots See - Forbes

GITAI’s Inchworm-Type Robotics Arm Achieves TRL6 in a Thermal Vacuum Chamber Test Simulating the South Pole Environment - PR Newswire

Switzerland’s drone dilemma - SwissInfo

Future of farming? Carbon Robotics raises $70M for AI robots that blast weeds with lasers - GeekWire

The Reservoir Unveils the First On-Farm Robotics Incubators - FIRA

Columbus startup Path Robotics raises region’s largest VC round in two years - Columbus Business Journal

Bear Robotics introduces the Carti Series of robots for logistics and material handling - BusinessWire

Anitoa launches computer-vision guided collaborative robot for qPCR sample preparation - Newswires

Bytes: Week in Review - A fraying tech “bromance”, Claude’s new skills and a robotics boom - MarketPlaceTech

The next big thing in Silicon Valley might just be an old-fashioned concept: humanoid robots that can mimic our physical abilities, like Rosey the Robot from “The Jetsons.” New developments in artificial intelligence are triggering renewed interest in the robotics industry.

Robot Events

The local events I’m going to be at…

• Stanford Robotics Center Opening - Nov 2nd - by invitation only

• Bots&Beer - Nov 6 - San Jose CTE

• DIY Robocars & Brazilian BBQ - Dec 7

• Humanoid Robotics Summit - Mountain View - Dec 11 - 12

• SVR Robotics Entrepreneur Workshop on Dec 13 - get the news first here :)

And some more robotics conferences (and I’ll see you at CSAIL, BARS, ROSCon, Masters&Robots, ICSR and more tbd):

• CORL Munich DE Nov 6 - Nov 9

• IEEE Future of Telepresence Pasadena CA Nov 16 - Nov 17

• Humanoids 2024 Nancy FR Nov 26 - Nov 28

• ISRR - 40th Anniversary - Long Beach CA Dec 8 - Dec 12

2025

• HRI 2025 Melbourne Australia March 4 - March 6

• ProMat 2025 Chicago IL Mar 17 - Mar 20

• ICRA 2025 Atlanta Georgia 17 May - 23 May 2025