What VCs are doing for liquidity, Google's home robot woes, Silicon Valley is the global leader in talent AND R&D funding
Are you looking for a job in robotics? These companies are hiring. Plus great numbers for manufacturing reshoring, and more robotics and embodied AI news.
The Reshoring Initiative 1H 2024 data shows more than 2 million U.S. reshoring and FDI manufacturing jobs have been announced since 2010. According to Harry Moser, the Preseident of The Reshoring Initiative;
“Moving forward, all eyes will be on creating a U.S. Industrial Policy that will dictate a more competitive environment for U.S. manufacturing across a broad range of industries. Skilled workforce development, currency, tariffs, the use of AI, and automation will be among the top issues. Escalating geopolitical tension is the leading factor driving the trend. “
Reshoring Call to Action
Visit the new Reshoring Initiative Government Grants and Incentives webpage for information on how to qualify and apply for aid. This resource is an ongoing summary of local, state and federal monetary incentives for manufacturers looking to return or expand US production. Some have expired. New ones are routinely announced. Please send us other links to add. In 2023, incentives for manufacturing projects averaged $75,000 per employee. Don’t miss out on these opportunities!
Robotics Talent and Support:
Foxglove
Engineering:
Senior Software Engineer - Rust (Contract)
Contract Remote - Oceania
Staff Backend Engineer
Full-time Remote - Americas
Staff Frontend Engineer
Full-time Remote - Americas
Staff Full Stack Engineer
Full-time Remote - Americas
Go To Market:
Sales/Solutions Engineer
Full-time Boston, Massachusetts, United States
LUUM Lashes
Sr. Robotics Software Engineer
ROBUST.ai
Assembly Technician (Contract)
On-site — ContractSan Carlos, CA
Contract Bilingual Field Services Technician (Las Vegas, NV)
On-site — ContractLas Vegas, NV
Robotics Technician (Contract)
On-site — ContractSan Carlos, CA
Senior Software Engineer, NVIDIA Jetson and CUDA
On-site — Full TimeSan Carlos, CA
Staff Software Engineer, NVIDIA Jetson and CUDA
On-site — Full TimeSan Carlos, CA
Blue River Technology
Test Automation Engineer, Autonomy
6 month position Remote
Intuitive Surgical
71 Positions Open
1X.Tech
Multiple positions
Sunnyvale, Norway and remote
Consultants:
Robotics Consultant/Contractor: Industrial Design and UX for Robotics, Autonomous Vehicles, and Humanoids Ben Julian of AutoLet Design
Sales, Marketing and Customer Development for Startups: I’ve seen Fulcrum Sales and Marketing deliver a full pipeline of qualified customers to SBIR startups embarking on fundraising. And they do it affordably. They’re a startup secret weapon and superpower. :)
If you are a (VC, PE, Grant) funded startup looking to drive pipeline, conduct customer discovery, find the voice of the customer, or a mixture of these - our team is just the right mixture of nimble and structured.
Send me your community news to share
Robot Expo Opportunities through SVR
2024 SVR Robotics Investment Forum
Friday Nov 1st Mountain View
VC panels, startup showcase and 1:1 investor matchmaking
apply here
What else is happening in VC?
At The Information, Kate Clark has written a good piece about the creative methods VCs are employing to return liquidity to their LPs and why that matters.
This link is good for three free reads (if you’re not already a subscriber)
Here’s a sample: One increasingly popular path venture firms are following to deliver cash to their LPs is through continuation funds. The technique has become so common in tech investing recently that venture capitalists have begun referring to them as CVs, for continuation vehicles.
“I never even heard the term continuation fund five years ago,” Ken Goldman, former Yahoo chief financial officer and an investor in startups and venture funds, said during an online investing conference last month. “It’s now the rage.
Silicon Valley is still world number one!
North America remains the world’s R&D powerhouse
While East Asia boasts the highest number of R&D-focused companies, North America remains the global leader in overall R&D spending. With $577.43 billion invested in R&D in 2023, accounting for 42.75% of the global total, the region’s more than 800 companies in the ranking of 2,500 continued to show resilience. U.S. R&D expenditures increased by 89% from 2011 to 2021, outpacing growth in countries like France and Germany.
The region’s R&D landscape is dominated by several key hubs:
1. Silicon Valley: The leader, mentioned at the outset of this article, spent $213.83 billion in R&D spending across 178 companies.
2. New York-New Jersey Corridor: A strong second with $50.20 billion in R&D spending and 88 companies.
3. Boston-Cambridge Area: A biotechnology powerhouse, investing $33.70 billion across 104 companies.
4. Seattle-Redmond Area: Home to tech giants like Microsoft, the region spent $32.10 billion on R&D across only 15 companies.
The top 10 R&D spenders in North America are:
1. Alphabet ($40.02 billion)
2. Meta ($34.09 billion)
3. Microsoft ($27.58 billion)
4. Amazon (estimated $42.7 billion)
5. Apple (estimated $21.91 billion)
6. Intel (estimated $16.9 billion)
7. Johnson & Johnson (estimated $13.85 billion)
8. Pfizer (estimated $11.4 billion)
9. Ford Motor (estimated $7.8 billion)
10. General Motors (estimated $7.3 billion)
Source: https://www.rdworldonline.com/3d-map-global-innovation-hubs/
In 2024, it really is better to run a startup in San Francisco, according to data and founders who’ve relocated.
The SF Bay Area remains by far the largest share of all tech employees in the U.S., with 49% of all Big Tech engineers and 27% of startup engineers, data from SignalFire’s Beacon platform shows. SignalFire, which prides itself on big data-driven analysis, also sees that the Bay Area’s share of tech engineers has been increasing since 2022 (not declining) and its share of this talent pool is more than 4x those of runner-up Seattle. The area is home to 12% of all the biggest VC-backed founders and 52% of startup employees, more than any other region.
Source: TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2024/08/25/in-2024-it-really-is-better-to-run-a-startup-in-san-francisco-according-to-data-and-founders-whove-relocated/
Robot News
How ARK is thinking about humanoid robotics - ARK blog
Humanoid Robots Head to Homes: Meet the NEO Beta - CNET
Our latest advances in robot dexterity - DeepMind blog
Robots are taking over New York City and even Bill Gates is investing - NYPost
Vantage Robotics launches nano drone - SVDaily
Leong Yong Shin: Bytes and big dreams at Augmentus - Business Times
Women in Robotics at Boston dynamics give career advice at MassRobotics event - Robot REport
Industrial Robotics: From Assembly Lines to AI Dogs at JLR - Technology Magazine
Ensuring the Success of Your Robotic Technology Deployment - Supply & Demand Chain Executive
Amazing views of robotic arm inspecting Chinese space station - Space.com
Driving Middle East’s Innovation in Robotics and Future of Automation - IEEE Spectrum
Inside Google’s 7-Year Mission to Give AI a Robot Body - Hans Peter Brondmo
As the head of Alphabet’s AI-powered robotics moonshot, I came to believe many things. For one, robots can’t come soon enough. For another, they shouldn’t look like us. Source: Wired https://www.wired.com/story/inside-google-mission-to-give-ai-robot-body/
Paywalled? Here are some clips and other perspectives on the story.
Source: AdaFruit Blog
Source: Axios
Robot Events
FIRA is back! October 22-24 Woodland CA
🚀 hashtag#FIRAUSA24: Unveiling the Future of AgTech!
🧑🌾 FIRA USA event: October 22-24
🌟 Highlights:
• Unparalleled networking for farmers, manufacturers, and scientists
• In-field demos of cutting-edge autonomous solutions
• Business meetings and research discussions
• Focus on specialty crops: vegetables, vines, fruit, and nut trees
Don't miss this opportunity to shape the future of agriculture!
🔗 Register now: https://lnkd.in/eHJDFK3F
The local events I’m going to be at…
ACTUATE Summit : Sep 18, 2024 . San Francisco - use SVROBO for 25% off
BARS is back at Berkeley this year on Oct 11 - it’s hard to get an invite though!
RobOpsCon 2024 - Mountain View - Oct 15
SVR Robotics Investment Summit - Nov 1st
Stanford Robotics Center Opening - Nov 2nd - by invitation only
Humanoid Robotics Summit - Mountain View - Dec 11 - 12, with SVR Robotics Entrepreneur Workshop on Dec 13 - get the news first here :)
The Humanoid Robotics Summit will be at the Computer History Museum and there is already a fabulous line up. AND we’re still collecting speaker applications.
And some more robotics conferences (and I’ll see you at CASE, ANDICOM, ICRA@40, ROSCon, Masters&Robots, ICSR and more tbd):
CASE 2024 Puglia Italy 28 Aug - 1 Sep 2024
BioRob Heidelberg DE 1 Sep-Sep 4
Commercial UAV Expo : Sep 03 - Sep 05, 2024 . Las Vegas, United States of America
CLAWAR 2024 Kaiserslauten DE Sep 4 - Sep 6
AMBayArea Fall Forum - Sep 5
IMTS Chicago IL Sep 9 - Sep 14
HAX Deep Tech Meetup Berkeley - Sep 12
ACTUATE Summit : Sep 18, 2024 . San Francisco - use SVROBO for 25% off
UC San Diego Conceptual Robotics Institute Symposium - Sep 19
ICRA@40 Rotterdam NL 23 Sep - 26 Sep
International Robot Safety Conference Cincinnati OH Oct 1 - Oct 3
A3’s Humanoids Memphis TN Oct 7
Autonomous Mobile Logistics Memphis TN Oct 8 - Oct 10
ANTS (Swarm robotics) 2024 : Oct 09 - Oct 11, 2024 . Konstanz, Germany
SOSV Climate Tech Summit Oct 14 - Oct 18
IROS 2024 AbuDhabi Oct 14 - Oct 18
RobOpsCon 2024 - Mountain View - Oct 15
ROSCon Odense DK Oct 21 - Oct 23
Masters&Robots Warsaw Poland Oct 22 - Oct 23
ROS Industrial Conference Odense DK Oct 24 - Oct 25
ICSR+AI Odense DK Oct 24 - Oct 26
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