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Pepper robots to roll out at 1,000 per month
Frank Tobe
10 Jul 2015
SoftBank announced that their little Pepper robot will be available for sale beginning August 1st at the rate of 1,000 per month after selling out their first 1,000 Peppers in one online minute in Jun...
What’s propelling China’s industrial robot revolution
Frank Tobe
03 Jul 2015
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Xi Jinping, China's President, last year called for an “industrial robot revolution.” Since then China has created policies giving value added tax refunds and subsidies to companies m...
Series of research reports evaluate robotics industry
Frank Tobe
23 Jun 2015
Businesses, analysts and investors often need and are willing to pay for more facts than they can gather from their sales and R&D departments; detailed comparative reviews of the landscape of a pa...
Forget Google and unicorns, Asian dragons are going to dominate robotics
Andra Keay
19 Jun 2015
Yesterday SoftBank, FoxConn and Alibaba cemented a strong robotics initiative. Having acquired a majority stake in Aldebaran in 2012 (just after the Amazon acquisition of Kiva), SoftBank’s interest...
SoftBank invests in Fetch Robotics
Frank Tobe
17 Jun 2015
Fetch Robotics, which just demo’d their Fetch and Freight robot system at ICRA in May, announced receiving $20 million from SoftBank, O’Reilly AlphaTech and Shasta Ventures....
What’s hot in robotics? Four trends to watch
Frank Tobe
11 Jun 2015
Four diverse trends are having a big effect on the robotics industry worldwide, and the global media and financial gurus are paying attention to the process....
Robots and manufacturing: Facts and figures from the Wall Street Journal
Frank Tobe
04 Jun 2015
A special Wall Street Journal report called Meet the New Robots: Manufacturing, Unleashing Innovation appeared in its own section in the Wall Street Journal this week. Lots of good facts, figures an...
Corindus Vascular Robotics goes public
Frank Tobe
01 Jun 2015
Corindus Vascular Robotics raised $42 million last week by offering 11 million shares at $3.80 and going public on the NYSE MKT exchange, a special market for small-cap growth companies....
April equity deals, acquisitions and Chinese funds
Frank Tobe
19 May 2015
Money is flowing to robotics-related startup companies. Q1 saw nineteen equity deals totalling $317 million, and three acquisitions of undetermined amounts, but money also flowed in April....
Danish co-bot maker Universal Robots sells for $350 million
Frank Tobe
13 May 2015
Privately held Danish company Universal Robots - the successful producer of the UR line of collaborative robots - has sold to Massachusetts-based Teradyne, a provider of electronic testing equipment....
Airware launches new system and gets funded
Frank Tobe
11 May 2015
Airware received an undisclosed investment from Intel Capital, which now joins GE Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins and a host of other prominent VCs in funding this au...
Consumer and B2B drone making is big business
Frank Tobe
08 May 2015
Lobbying for drone special interests rose from $35 million in 2011 to more than $186 million in 2014. But that is dwarfed by investments in drone makers such as DJI and 3DR, who just raised $75M and...
Two profitable uses for robots
Frank Tobe
05 May 2015
Industrial robots keep humming along, doing the dull, dirty and dangerous work of factories around the world. Newer applications are less often known but are quickly emerging. Here are two novel ones....
Chinese shopping for global robotics ventures
Frank Tobe
30 Apr 2015
April has seen Chinese VCs acquiring robotic ventures, buying out competitors, seeking funding to scale up production, and shoring up industry gaps....
Commercial drone market projected to grow 109% CAGR
Frank Tobe
27 Apr 2015
Markets and Markets, a Dallas, TX research firm, in an 189-page $4,650 report, is projecting that the global commercial drones market will grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 109.3% and ...
Sino-Russian robotics boosted as Skolkovo signs $200M deal with Chinese investment fund
Hallie Siegel
22 Apr 2015
Russia's Skolkovo Foundation and the Chinese Cybernaut Investment Group signed an agreement yesterday in Beijing to create a joint Russian-Chinese business incubator, a robotics accelerator program, ...
Parrot grows both consumer and commercial drone business
Frank Tobe
10 Apr 2015
Previously known for consumer products for smartphones, tablets and cars, Paris-based Parrot recently branched into both the consumer and commercial drone businesses....
Domino’s April Fools Day spoof not so far-fetched
Frank Tobe
08 Apr 2015
"Domino's rolls out driverless delivery vehicles" blared the headline on the Dominos UK website on April Fools Day. They even provided a short video clip of the phony vehicle delivering pizz...
March money flow recap
Frank Tobe
06 Apr 2015
The first three months of 2015 are doing quite well for robotics-related companies. March fundings and acquisitions to CyPhy Works, Hansen Medical, Clearpath Robotics, DroneDeploy, JR Automation and L...
Hansen Medical gets $35M; Clearpath Robotics $11.2M
Frank Tobe
21 Mar 2015
Two robotics-related companies just got funding. Hansen Medical sold 53,846 shares to get $35M; and Clearpath Robotics got $11.2M for an unusual reason....
Takeoff in robotics will power the next productivity surge in manufacturing
The Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
05 Mar 2015
BCG research predicts that by 2025, adoption of advanced robots will boost productivity by up to 30 percent in many industries, and lower total labor costs by 18 percent or more in countries such as S...
3D Robotics gets $50M series C funding
Frank Tobe
28 Feb 2015
The $50 million Series C funding, mainly from Qualcomm, provides the basis for a tacit partnership between Qualcomm and 3D Robotics with a goal of leveraging the pace of innovation in the smartphone i...
UPDATE Pepper delayed until summer; Aldebaran execs Maisonnier and Baillie leave
Frank Tobe
23 Feb 2015
UPDATED 2/23/15 Softbank announced a delay in sales of their Pepper robot from February until sometime during the summer. Aldebaran announced that CEO and Founder Bruno Maisonnier and Jean-Christop...
Bruno Maisonnier moves on from Aldebaran
Andra Keay
23 Feb 2015
Farewell and thank you to Bruno Maisonnier, the founder and CEO of Aldebaran Robotics, which is now 95% owned by Softbank. Softbank had previously acquired a majority stake in the ground breaking Fr...
Seegrid reorganization plan okayed by judge
Frank Tobe
13 Feb 2015
A bankruptcy judge cleared the way for Seegrid to exit from Chapter 11 by okaying the reorganization plan and rejecting challenges lodged by the ex-CEO....
Fetch Robotics gets $3 million
Frank Tobe
10 Feb 2015
Ex-Willow Garage and Unbounded Robotics veterans get $3 million to bring mobile manipulator and mobile platform to market....
2015 sees mobile manipulators coming to market
Andra Keay
09 Feb 2015
[tweetquote]Fetch Robotics has just announced $3 million funding from Shasta Ventures and O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures[/tweetquote], which will be used to bring their new mobile manipulator robots to...
Qualcomm acquires KMel Robotics
Ben Fisher
09 Feb 2015
In Qualcomm's quest to shape the future of robotics, the US-based semi-conductor juggernaut acquired KMel Robotics last week for an undisclosed sum....
Recent robotics transactions
Frank Tobe
09 Feb 2015
New Chinese robotics investment fund; the RIA says 2014 North American robotics set new sales record; marine robotics company gets acquired. These stories and many more … ...
Robotics research reports project upward growth
Frank Tobe
09 Feb 2015
A flurry of robotic research analyses and reports are being sold by a variety of vendors. Most show steady growth rates — and a few project spectacular growth....
KMel Robotics acquired by Qualcomm Technologies | Philadelphia Business Journal
Hallie Siegel
04 Feb 2015
KMel Robotics has been acquired by Qualcomm Technologies, a global tech company based in San Diego. KMel's founders, two University of Pennsylvania graduates, announced the news on their company's we...
January fundings are off to a great start!
Frank Tobe
02 Feb 2015
Rethink Robotics, Xenix, Rapyuta, Perceptron, Skydio, Sarcos and JIBO have all announced substantial fundings for a wide range of robotic ventures. Plus there are some new funders joining the fray....
What’s next for the commercial drone industry?
Ben Fisher
27 Jan 2015
With the commercial use of drones to increase in the coming years, we wanted to take a look at where we are today and take a quick look at what is just around the corner....
Clamor for Bay Area and Silicon Valley talent
Frank Tobe
26 Jan 2015
Silicon Valley and the whole San Francisco Bay area have such an abundant talent pool that global companies and startups alike are setting up research labs and offices there to secure engineering and ...
2014 fundings, IPOs, acquisitions, and failures (Updated)
Frank Tobe
20 Jan 2015
From the 2014 archives of The Robot Report: 30 fundings, acquisitions, IPOs and failures with some staggering figures. UPDATED Jan 20, 2015 to include additions from Travis Deyle's Hizook blog, and o...
Rethink Robotics gets $26.6 million Christmas gift
Frank Tobe
08 Jan 2015
UPDATED Jan 8: In an unannounced funding discovered by Boston Globe reporter Scott Kirsner, [tweetquote]Rethink Robotics sold equity and received $26.6 million a few days before Christmas[/tweetquote]...
