- Robotic Research — a global leader in autonomous mobility and robotics solutions — recently announced it raised a $228 million funding round. These are the details.
Robotic Research — a global leader in autonomous mobility and robotics solutions — recently announced it raised a $228 million funding round. This is the first outside capital the company has raised.
The funding round will drive further innovation and expansion of Robotic Research’s commercial division RR.AI, which is focused on delivering comprehensive autonomous driving solutions for commercial truck, bus, drayage, and logistics vehicles. The investors in the Series A round include SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Enlightenment Capital, Crescent Cove Advisors, Henry Crown and Company, and Luminar Technologies.
Robotic Research successfully deployed autonomous and robotics solutions on roadways around the globe as well as in the industry’s harshest, unstructured environments. And the company’s vehicle-agnostic autonomy kit AutoDrive has already been integrated in a variety of vehicles including North America’s first automated heavy-duty transit bus, Class 8 trucks, and yard trucks. AutoDrive can be used on-road, off-road, or in the yard, making it uniquely suited to provide a 360° autonomous driving solution that spans a variety of complex operational design domains (ODDs).
KEY QUOTES:
“This investment reflects our success in developing autonomous solutions for our U.S. government customers, and will provide the resources needed to meet our growing commercial customer demand and the expansion of our commercial efforts. Our long history and experience has enabled us to develop a proven solution that is not only rugged, safe, and reliable, but also versatile and ideal for operating across a variety of environments, weather conditions, and use cases.”
— Alberto Lacaze, CEO, Robotic Research
“We believe that autonomous vehicle technology has the potential to reshape how goods and people are moved around. Robotic Research has a track record of operating in the commercial sector and has built a differentiated autonomy solution by focusing on tangible, revenue-generating opportunities. We are thrilled to be a financial partner and provide resources needed to accelerate the commercialization of Robotic Research’s solutions.”
— Akshay Naheta, Senior Vice President of SoftBank Group Corp and former Managing Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers
