The number of transactions for corporate investment robotics startups increased to 25 in 2015, an increase of 15 transactions over the previous year. Among the deals worth mentioning are Xiaomi’s 80 million dollar investment in Ninebot, 3D Robotics invested by Qualcomm Venture’s 50 million USD Series C round, and Samsung’s 25 million dollar A round investment social robot Jibo. As of September 23, 2016, robotic startups supported by corporate capital traded more than 15 transactions.
The acquisition of industrial robots is also very active. Prior to September 23, the most recent acquisition was the acquisition of Swedish SVIA by ABB Switzerland.
We use CBInsightsBusinessSocialGraph to visualize the overlap between investors/acquisitioners and target companies, and analyze the investment activities of the most active companies and venture capital groups in this field. Companies on this list include active acquirers and capital companies that have invested in at least two robot startups since 2012.
ABB and ABB Technology Ventures
Google and Google Ventures
Intel and Intel Capital
GE Ventures
Qualcomm and Qualcomm Ventures
Robert Bosch Venture Capital
Foxconn Technology Company
Omron Ventures
Flextronics International
Mitsubishi UFJ Capital
2012-2016 (as of September 23, 2016), the most active robotic investment company
Joint investment
Mitsubishi UFG Capital and Omron Venture: The CVC teamed up with Japan's Mitsubishi and electronics company Omron to invest in two Japanese industrial robot startup companies, LifeRobtics, which picks up and places robots, and 3DMEDiA, a robot vision startup.
Google Ventures and Intel Capital have invested in California's Savilee Corporation, which has developed a service robot Relay for the medical industry. The company raised $15 million in series A in the first quarter of 2016. Investors included EDBI, Intel Capital and Northern Light Venture Capital.