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Thirty-seven robotics firms received funding in March 2024, pulling in a total monthly investment of $642 million. March’s investment figure was significantly less than February’s mark of approximately $2 billion, but it was in keeping with other monthly investments in 2023 and early 2024 (see Figure 1, below).

California companies secure investment

As described in Table 1 below, the two largest robotics investments in March were secured by software suppliers. Applied Intuition, a provider of software infrastructure to deploy autonomous vehicles at scale, received a $250 million Series E round, while Physical Intelligence, a developer of foundation models and other software for robots and actuated devices, attracted $70 million in a seed round. Both firms are located in California.

Other California firms receiving substantial rounds included Bear Robotics, a manufacturer of self-driving indoor robots that raised a $60 million Series C round, and unmanned aerial system (UAS) developer Firestorm, whose seed funding was $20 million. For a PDF version of Table 1, click here.

March 2024 robotics investments

Company	Amount ($)	Round	Country	Technology
Agilis Robotics	10,000,000	Series A	China	Surgical/interventional systems
Aloft	Estimate	Other	U.S.	Drones, data acquisition / processing / management
Applied Intuition	250,000,000	Series E	U.S.	Software
Automated Architecture	3,280,000	Estimate	U.K.	Micro-factories
Bear RoboBear Roboticstics	60,000,000	Series C	U.S.	Indoor mobile platforms
BIOBOT Surgical	18,000,000	Series B	Singapore	Surgical systems
Buzz Solutions	5,000,000	Other	U.S.	Drone inspection
Cambrian Robotics	3,500,000	Seed	U.K.	Machine vision
Coctrl	13,891,783	Series B	China	Software
DRONAMICS	10,861,702	Grant	U.K.	Drones
Eacon Mining	41,804,272	Series C	China	Autonomous transportation, sensors
ECEON Robotics	Estimate	Pre-seed	Germany	Autonomous forklifts
ESTAT Automation	Estimate	Grant	U.S.	Actuators / motors / servos
Fieldwork Robotics	758,181	Grant	U.K.	Outdoor mobile manipulation platforms, sensors
Firestorm Labs	20,519,500	Seed	U.S.	Drones
Freespace Robotics	Estimate	Other	U.S.	Automated storage and retrieval systems
Gather AI	17,000,000	Series A	U.S.	Drones, software
Glacier	7,700,000	Other	U.S.	Articulated robots, sensors
IVY TECH Ltd.	421,435	Grant	U.K.	Outdoor mobile platforms
KAIKAKU	Estimate	Pre-seed	U.K.	Collaborative robots
KEF Robotics	Estimate	Grant	U.S.	Drone software
Langyu Robot	Estimate	Other	China	Automated guided vehicles, software
Linkwiz	2,679,725	Other	Japan	Software
Motional	Estimate	Seed	U.S.	Autonomous transportation systems
Orchard Robotics	3,800,000	Pre-seed	U.S.	Crop management
Pattern Labs	8,499,994	Other	U.S.	Indoor and outdoor mobile platforms
Physical Intelligence	70,000,000	Seed	U.S.	Software
Piximo	Estimate	Grant	U.S.	Indoor mobile platforms
Preneu	11,314,492	Series B	Korea	Drones
QibiTech	5,333,884	Other	Japan	Software, operator services, uncrewed ground vehicles
Rapyuta Robotics	Estimate	Other	Japan	Indoor mobile platforms, autonomous forklifts
RIOS Intelligent Machines	13,000,000	Series B	U.S.	Machine vision
RITS	13,901,825	Series A	China	Sensors, software
Robovision	42,000,000	Other	Belgium	Computer vision, AI
Ruoyu Technology	6,945,312	Seed	China	Software
Sanctuary Cognitive Systems	Estimate	Other	Canada	Humanoids / bipeds, software
SeaTrac Systems	899,955	Other	U.S.	Uncrewed surface vessels
TechMagic	16,726,008	Series C	Japan	Articulated robots, sensors
Thor Power	Estimate	Seed	China	Articulated robots
Viam	45,000,000	Series B	Germany	Smart machines
WIRobotics	9,659,374	Series A	S. Korea	Exoskeletons, consumer, home healthcare
X Square	Estimate	Seed	U.S.	Software
Yindatong	Estimate	Seed	China	Surgical / interventional systems
Zhicheng Power	Estimate	Series A	China	Consumer / household
Zhongke Huiling	Estimate	Seed	China	Humanoids / bipeds, microcontrollers / microprocessors / SoC

Drones get fuel for takeoff in March 2024

Providers of drones, drone technologies, and drone services also attracted substantial individual investments in March 2024. Examples included Firestorm and Gather AI, a developer of inventory monitoring drones whose Series A was $17 million.

In addition, drone services provider Preneu obtained $11 million in Series B funding, and DRONAMICS, a developer of drone technology for cargo transportation and logistics operations, got a grant worth $10.8 million.

Companies in U.S. and China received the majority of the March 2024 funding, at $451 million and $100 million, respectively (see Figure 2, below).

Companies based in Japan and the U.K. were also well represented among the March 2024 investment totals. Four companies in Japan secured a total of $34.7 million, while an equal number of firms in the U.K. attracted $13.5 million in funding.

 

Nearly 40% of March’s robotics investments came from a single Series E round — that of Applied Intuition. The remaining funding classes were all represented in March 2024 (Figure 3, below).

Editor’s notes

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 and intelligent systems 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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