Funding for robotics startup companies reach record high in 2016

In 2016, 128 robotics startup companies received a total of $1.95 billion in various forms of funding, which is up from the previous year’s total of $1.32 billion, according to The Robot Report.

Seed, crowd, and venture capitalist funded robotics-related startups of all kinds, including such companies as Velodyne LiDAR, Zymergen, and UBTech, which were the three companies that each got more than $100 million in funding. Based in California, Velodyne LiDAR—a developer of a full line of LIDAR sensors that deliver 3D data for autonomous vehicles, industrial equipment and machinery, and 3D mapping and surveillance—received $100 million in funding from Ford Motor Company and Baidu. The company expects an exponential increase in LiDAR sensor deployments in autonomous vehicles and ADAS applications over the next several years.

Receiving $130 million in Series A funding led by Softbank and Data Collective, among others, was Zymergen, a Silicon Valley integrator of lab robotics in biotech. Zymergen is attempting to produce industrial chemicals used in making products such as soap, ink, and paint. The company hopes to capture this market by creating the building blocks of these products from non-petroleum sources and creating microbes automated in what they call “Robotics for high-throughput biology.”

Based in Shenzhen, China; UBTech (Union Brother Technology) received $100 million in Series B funding led by CDH Investments with CITIC Securities. UBTech develops small consumer humanoid robots. Its new $1,300 Alpha2 robot, which went on sale this past year, has been receiving significant media attention.

In terms of the markets that received funding, unmanned aerial systems were at the top of the list, as 25 unmanned aerial systems received funding, followed by 15 agricultural robotics startups, service robotics for businesses, service robots for personal use, vision systems providers, self-driving systems and mobile robotics and AGVs companies, in addition to other categories.

Pictured: Agricultural robot

View the full list of companies that received funding in 2016.

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