IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - March 2023 - 101

I N D U S TRY A C TI V ITI E S
Charting the Rapid Recent Commercialization
of Robotics Technologies
By Andra Keay
At the moment there is no canonical
global source of robotics commercialization
information. However, the general
tracking of investment data over the
last decade can show significant overall
trends, even if each dataset or analytics
company provides different figures.
Before 2013, there were almost no
investment data to speak of, although
the acquisition of Kiva by Amazon, followed
by Google's spending spree, created
excitement. From that point onward,
starting in Silicon Valley, which remains
the largest global source of venture capital
(VC), seed stage investment in robotics,
drones, and autonomous vehicles
started climbing rapidly. By 2015, robotics
had attracted more than US$1 billion
in investment, and approximately onethird
was seed stage. Investment has
continued on an exponential curve, with
many new robotics investors and funds.
But while the amount invested in robotics
has grown and spread around the
world, the overall number of deals has
declined. This is a signal of consolidation
as winners start to emerge, with
larger later stage investment rounds.
According to Crunchbase,
in 2021,
more than US$17 billion poured into
VC-backed robotic startups, nearly triple
the investment in 2020. By May 2022
(Figure 1), the sector had already seen
more than US$5 billion flow to startups.
In total, 2022 looks to have exceeded
US$12 or US$13 billion, but the dust
hasn't settled yet.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MRA.2023.3238210
Date of current version: 22 March 2023
1070-9932/23©2023IEEE
In spite of the pandemic, robotics has
continued to attract investment. It's by
no means easy for startups to survive
the process, but overall, the future for
the emerging robotics industry is looking
bright and undervalued, particularly
compared to segments like cryptocurrency,
mobile apps, and nonfungible tokens.
The IEEE RAS Industrial Activities
Board (IAB) is working on a Robotics
Industry Report comprising investment
data; snapshots of emerging market
segments; and case studies of successful
robotics deployments. Help us by
letting us know what sort of data would
be of most use to you.
Are you looking for country comparisons?
Case studies? Analysis of trends?
Or something else? Robotics sales reports
exist, but the majority of robotics companies
today are less than six or seven years
Funding In Robotics
Funding numbers include preseed, seed, and all venture rounds.
Total US$ Invested Number of Deals
834
718
609
660
US$17.1B
US$10.2B
US$11.5B
US$6.3B
2018
Crunchbase News
FIGURE 1. Funding in robotics as of May 2022. B: billions.
MARCH 2023 IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE
101
2019
2020
2021
US$5.4B
2022 YTD
190
old, and very few of them have meaningful
revenue yet. Revenue or sales data
are only relevant information if you want
to track existing sections of the robotics
industry. Investment data and mergers/
acquisitions show where the robotics
industry is going to grow and where
a few category-leading companies will
emerge, just as iRobot emerged in the
robot vacuum cleaner sector, DJI in the
unmanned aerial vehicle/drone sector,
and Blue River in the agrobotics sector.
SOME SNAPSHOTS OF RECENT
ROBOTICS INVESTMENT AREAS
FOOD SERVICE ROBOTS
AND MACHINES
Companies in this space are developing
automated machines for the purpose of
assisting food service in the areas of
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9946-606X
IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - March 2023

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