It’s not even July, and 2014 has already been a tremendous year for Robohub. In addition to doubling our readership to over 50,000 unique monthly visitors, we successfully organized the first global robotics startup competition, launched the first global jobs board for the robotics community, and broadcast our 150th podcast. We also hit major milestones in our social media reach, including: 625,000 Google+ followers, 3000 Twitter followers and 1000 Facebook fans.

Our 2014 accomplishments:

• Robot Launch 2014 – The first global startup competition for robotics – Seventy-six robotics startups from 19 different countries competed for mentorship and prizes from Indiegogo, WilmerHale, Grishin Robotics, Bosch Ventures, Lemnos Labs, Robolution Captital, Luxr, and a showcase at O’Reilly’s Solid conference. Yesterday we announced the grand prize winner, Leka, a startup from France that makes social robots for children with autism. See the full list of award-winners here.

• Big deals: What it means to have the giants investing in robotics – It was the question everyone in the robotics community was asking this winter, and we worked hard to find the answers among those in the know. Check out the insightful guest pieces by Gill Pratt, Henrik Schunk, Dan Kara, Valery Komissarova, Erin Rapacki, Rob Wilson, Chad Partridge and others.
• ROBOTS: From imagination to market – A full day seminar and networking event at MIT. Co-organized by Robohub, Swissnex Boston, Swisslink and the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, with talks from Radhika Nagpal (Wyss), Sangbae Kim (MIT), Cynthia Brazeal (MIT Media Lab), Dario Floreano (EPFL), Ben Einstein (Bolt), Parris Wellman (Kiva), Miriam Bekouche (Indiegogo) and many others.
• Robojobs – The new international jobs board dedicated to the robotics community – Find posting for jobs in the robotics industry, or post a job to reach relevant candidates worldwide. Proceeds support our non-profit organization.
• Robots Podcast: 150th Episode Special – Our award-winning podcast team recently published its 150th episode of interviews with influential leaders in the robotics community.
• Our new monthly digest offers an excellent snapshot of robotics news from the past month.
• Robohub calls and events calendar – Promotes events to the global robotics community.

Robohub is proud of these accomplishments, but we are just getting started. Our team has even more initiatives lined up for the second half of the year, including:

• Expert hangouts with robotics influencers
• Crowdfunding support for robotics startups
• New focus series on the role of robotics in eldercare, and in arts and entertainment
• Review series on educational robotics
• More listings and resumes on Robojobs
• Expanded outreach to mainstream news outlets
• Coverage of IROS 2014

We will also begin preparations for Robot Launch 2015. Thrilled about the success of our first annual robotics startup competition, we want the next to be bigger and better, with more startups, more judges and more prizes.

Robohub is constantly looking for new ways to bring you the information you want to hear. Our robotics jobs board, business competition, increased coverage of robotics business news and startups, and expanded events calendar were all in response to our readers’ feedback. Going forward, your support will help us realize even more exciting initiatives, and explore new ways to cover and share the information that matters most to you.

We are incredibly grateful to our volunteer contributors, tech and editorial staff, our readers and everyone who has spread the word about Robohub. With your help we can deliver more content, find new ways to engage the robotics community and fulfill our mission of connecting the robotics community to the public. Your support is what keeps Robohub plugged in.