Robotics companies raise $851M in August 2023

Robotics funding reached $851 million in August 2023, the result of 62 investments (See Table 1 below or download Table 1 HERE). The total amount of funding for 2023 to date is about $8.85 billion.

Companies located in the U.S., China and Israel received the most rounds and the most funding amounts, dwarfing other countries (Figure 1, below). Companies based in the USA received the majority of the rounds (23), which resulted in a total funding inflow of $537 million. Firms based in China attracted $141 million in funding (coming from 17 investments), while four investments in Israeli companies accounted for $94M in investment.

Companies offering robotic surgical systems and enabling technologies were particularly strong in August. Examples include PROCEPT BioRobotics ($150M), Vicarious Surgical ($45M), Ronovo Surgical ($27M), and Endorobotics ($8M).

Providers of self-driving software and hardware solutions for autonomous transportation, led by Pony.ai ($139M), also received substantial funding. Other companies include Innoviz Technologies ($65M), Helm.ai ($55M) and Imagry ($15M).

Figure 1: August 2023 Robotics Investment by Country

All funding types were well represented in the August 2023 investment review (Figure 2). Approximately one-quarter of the August 2023 investments were Pre-Seed and Seed rounds.

More than one-half of the August 2023 investment amounts fell under the aegis of ‘Other,’ a catchall descriptor for investments that do not include the typical stages of funding that businesses go through before their initial public offering (ex. Seed rounds followed by Series A, B, C, D and E funding). Investments in the ‘Other’ category accounted for over $500M in funding (Figure 3, below).

Figure 2: August 2023 Robotics Funding Amounts by Investment Type

Figure 3: August 2023 Robotics Funding Amounts by Investment Number 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 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 a number of 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.