Robotics investments prime $3.7B in September 2024

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Fifty-four 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.

CompanyAmountRoundCountryTech

AgEagle Aerial Systems$6,500,000OtherUSADrones

AgibotEstimateSeries AChinaHumanoids

AIDIN ROBOTICS$11,226,313Series BKoreaEnd Effectors

Aptiv$2,200,000,000OtherIrelandAutonomous Vehicles

Booster Robotics$14,043,958SeedChinaHumanoids

Bot car$20,000,000SeedUSAAutonomous Vehicles

Darkhive$21,000,000Series AUSADrones

Delta Robotics$30,000Pre-SeedUSAMotion Control

Diden RoboticsEstimateSeedKoreaCollaborative Robots

DRONUSEstimateOtherItalyDrones

Enigma Aerospace$120,000Pre-SeedUSADrones

Epica International$18,000,000OtherUSAArticulated Robots

Forterra$75,000,000Series BUSASensors

Four Growers$9,077,219OtherUSAIndoor Mobile Robots

Gideon BrothersEstimateOtherCroatiaIndoor Mobile Robots

Hong Jing DriveEstimateSeries CChinaSensors

HonuWorxEstimateSeedUKUnderwater Drones

Bolted in$16,677,118Series AFranceSensors

Inspire-Robots$14,262,690Series BChinaGrippers

Jaipur Robotics$120,000Pre-SeedSwitzerlandVision

Leap.AI (Leap Automation)$10,568,802OtherUKCollaborative Robots

Maritime Robotics$12,000,000OtherNorwayUnmanned Surface Vehicles

MatternetEstimateOtherUSADrones

Mendaera$73,000,000Series BUSASurgical Robotics

Mengshi TechnologyEstimateSeedChinaSurgical Robotics

navel robotics$752,742SeedGermanyHumanoids

Navflex$5,550,000OtherUSAAutonomous Forklifts

NoematrixEstimateSeedChinaSoftware

Open Ocean Robotics$591,960OtherCanadaUnmanned Surface Vehicles

Optimotive$2,000,000SeedCanadaOutdoor Mobile Robots

Origin Robotics$2,559,916SeedLatviaDrones

Pickommerce$3,400,000SeedIsraelCollaborative Robots

Puncture RoboticEstimateSeries BChinaSurgical Robots

Pyka$40,000,000Series BUSADrones

Quantum Systems$40,538,674Series BGermanyDrones

Quicktron Robotics$100,000,000Series DChinaOutdoor Mobile Robots

Reactive Robotics$2,779,838OtherGermanyRehabilitation Robots

RoboligentEstimateOtherUSACollaborative Robots

Seegers$50,000,000 Series DUSA Indoor Mobile Robots

Smooth Ag$100,000Pre-SeedUSAOutdoor Mobile Robots

Sniffer Robotics$535,389OtherUSAExoskeletons

Social Hardware International (Eclipse)$400,000SeedIndiaArticulated Robots

Swap Robotics$8,877,238OtherCanadaOutdoor Mobile Robots

THOTH$7,483,403SeedKoreaCollaborative Robots

TrashBoticsEstimatePre-SeedIndiaArticulated Robots

Triorb$1,757,515Series BJapanIndoor Mobile Robots

Unitree RoboticsEstimateSeries CChinaHumanoids

W8less$500,000OtherUSASoftware

WARGdronesEstimatePre-SeedGermanyDrones

Weier Intelligent DriveEstimateOtherChinaMotion Control

XinghaituEstimateOtherChinaHumanoids

Xingmai InnovationEstimateSeries AChinaUnderwater Drones

Yihang.aiEstimateSeries CChinaSensors

YoboticsEstimateOtherChinaHumanoids

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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