Robotics companies raised $578M in January

Robotics investments totaled $578 million in January 2024 as the result of 46 funding rounds. This figure was substantially lower than the trailing twelve-month average, but in line with January 2023’s figure of $523 million. 

The largest robotics investment in January 2024 was a $100 million round secured by Norway-based 1X, a developer of humanoids (See Table 1 below). Chinese humanoid developer Robot Era raised $14 million in February.

Makers of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for agricultural operations were well represented among February robotics investments. Examples include Bluewhite ($39 million), Burro ($24 million), Saga Robotics ($11.5 million), farm-ng ($10M), and Ant Robotics ($2 million).

January 2024 Robotics Investments

Companies based in China attracted the greatest investment amount ($229 million), the result of 17 rounds (Figure 2, below). The leading investments among Chinese firms included Zhuoyi Intelligent Technology, a developer of drones and other classes of unmanned systems, autonomous truck developer Senior Automation, and GUOZI, a producer of AMRs.

Companies based in the United States raised $154 million in January 2024, while Norway, buoyed by the $100 million 1X investment, placed third among countries with $113 million in funding.

Figure 2: January 2024 Robotics Investment by Country

While Series B rounds attributed for most of the January investments, all funding types were well represented in January 2024 (Figure 3 below).

Figure 3: January 2024 Robotics Funding by Investment Type and Amounts

Editor’s note
What defines robotics investments? The answer to this simple 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.

Investors and investing
Investment should come from venture capital firms, corporate investment groups, angel investors, and other sources. Friends-and-family investments, government/non-governmental agency grants, and crowd-sourced 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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