|
Take heed to this text  |
Inventor Dean Kamen and Cybernetix Ventures co-founder Mark Martin at Robotics Make investments 2024. Credit score: Eugene Demaitre
BOSTON — Whereas many robotics occasions are vendor-driven, some share the views of different elements of the rising international ecosystem. Final month, the second annual Robotics Make investments occasion convened, gathering enterprise capitalists, innovators, and startups.
Coming a month after the Robotics Summit & Expo, which centered on builders of business techniques for the manufacturing, warehousing, and healthcare industries, amongst others, Robotics Make investments supplied the investor standpoint. Whereas a lot of the audio system and attendees acknowledged post-COVID-19 financial challenges, they supplied examples and recommendation for corporations seeking to scale.
Keynote audio system included Dean Kamen, founding father of FIRST Robotics, DEKA, and ARMI, and Marc Raibert, co-founder of Boston Dynamics and The AI Institute.
The occasion additionally featured panel discussions about points starting from the acquisition panorama and sustainability to a debate on whether or not humanoid robots are actuality or hype. One-on-one conferences and deep-dive roundtables on Day 2 allowed smaller teams of traders and startups to satisfy.
Fady Saad, co-founder of Cybernetix Ventures, which organized Robotics Make investments, replied to the next questions from The Robotic Report:
Robotics Make investments grows
What was the ultimate variety of attendees, and the place did they arrive from?
Fady Saad, Cybernetix Ventures. Supply: LinkedIn
Saad: Robotics Make investments introduced collectively over 260 of the brightest minds in robotics, representing 9 nations and 6 robotics clusters.
The nations have been the U.S., Canada, Japan, Belgium, India, Germany, Switzerland, the U.Okay., and Denmark. The clusters included the Pittsburgh Robotics Community, MassRobotics, and Silicon Valley Robotics, in addition to New York, Zurich, and Germany.
What was the combination of VCs, corporates, and founders?
Saad: Over 130 founders, 60 traders, and roughly a dozen corporates attended the occasion. The remainder of the attendees have been a mixture of reporters, analysts, and occasion underwriters.
How did this yr’s programming evolve from the primary Robotics Make investments?
Saad: This yr, we added a second day that included one other keynote speaker, interactive roundtables, and curated 1:1 conferences.
The most important piece of suggestions from final yr was to incorporate extra time for attendee networking. So, we added an prolonged networking reception to Day 1, leveraged the interactivity of the roundtables to function extra structured networking, and included once more the 1:1 curated conferences. The addition of the roundtables allowed attendees to debate much more particular, deep-dive subjects in robotics.
We’re additionally actually proud that not one of the keynotes or panel periods have been repeats from final yr. As an alternative, all of them centered on subjects pertinent to the 2024 robotics local weather.
Use instances for automation are maturing, notice audio system
What have been some key takeaways from the occasion?
Saad: At the start, it was invigorating to see the worldwide attain of the robotics group. It was additionally inspiring to see how passionate the ecosystem is in making an impression on a number of the largest challenges going through the world at the moment, akin to renewable power, recycling, and extra.
One other vital takeaway is that robotics is a complete funding class in and of itself. We are able to’t couple robotics with SaaS [software as a service] or roll it into “deep tech.” It’s its personal class, with particular issues round growth, go-to-market, and fundraising, and it ought to be handled as such.
A takeaway that ought to encourage your entire group is that each business stage is specializing in robotics innovation, adoption, and use-case purposes. From founders and traders to service suppliers, healthcare giants, and different companies in logistics, manufacturing, and extra, representatives emphasised that robotics is the longer term. The important thing consideration right here is that robots want to supply worth to human operators and carry out duties with unbelievable reliability.
And I can’t neglect to say one of the thrilling subjects of the occasion: humanoids. It’s clear that humanoids are one other product class. Nonetheless, the continuing questions of, “What are the most effective use-case purposes?” and “How lengthy will product-market match take by way of functionality, value, security and high quality?” stay to be answered. One factor is for positive, although — the world is watching.
From left: Frank Kjerstein, Reblade; Duncan Turner, SOSV; Rebecca Hu, Glacier; and Abe Murray, Alleycorp, focus on sustainability at Robotics Make investments. Credit score: Eugene Demaitre
What have been some noteworthy moments at Robotics Make investments?
Fady: Like the important thing takeaways, it’s laborious to single out my favourite moments. That mentioned, a number of the stand-out moments embody the distinctive power that Dean Kamen delivered to his keynote hearth chat, in addition to the passion and discourse all through the humanoid debate.
I additionally loved Marc Raibert’s story of constructing and rising Boston Dynamics, and the attendee enthusiasm, curiosity and insights that got here from the roundtable discussions.
What was the suggestions from the roundtables and one-on-one conferences?
Saad: We’re nonetheless accumulating, compiling and summarizing the takeaways from the roundtables and 1:1 conferences. The suggestions now we have gotten thus far has been that each the roundtables and conferences have been extraordinarily invaluable.
Attendees additionally shared that the roundtables have been particularly good for studying, networking, and relationship constructing.
Boston Dynamics and the AI Institute’s Marc Raibert with Cybernetix Ventures’ Fady Saad at Robotics Make investments. Credit score: Eugene Demaitre
The longer term seems to be shiny for robotics funding
On steadiness, do you assume the panelists have been bullish on robotics, and why?
Saad: Sure, we really feel that they have been bullish, which displays the perspective of many sectors, akin to manufacturing, building, logistics, healthcare, local weather, and agriculture.
The adoption of robotic options, or as many panelists referred to as them, “good machines,” is turning into not solely extra ubiquitous but in addition essential to sustain with calls for. That is very true in industries like local weather tech. In truth, on the occasion, we heard the local weather tech panel repeatedly say that we received’t be capable to remedy the local weather disaster with out robotics.
Equally, as the thought of reshoring U.S. manufacturing positive aspects traction, it’s evident that to make this a actuality throughout the demand and value restrictions, we should undertake robotic options.
So, we’re again to the query, “What are the most effective use instances for robotics?” As attendees know, answering this query is a central focus and theme of Robotics Make investments.
Do Cybernetix Ventures and the opposite occasion organizers have any plans for subsequent yr?
Saad: Whereas we’re not disclosing particulars now, I can say that Robotics Make investments 2025 will undoubtedly construct on this yr’s occasion, with refreshed panels and roundtable subjects, high-caliber audio system, and unbelievable networking alternatives.
As we glance to 2025, we will’t wait to carry the robotics group collectively once more to assist construct the following wave of robotics unicorns and drive the business ahead.
From left: Andrea Thomaz, Diligent Robotics; Peter Wurman, Sony AI America; Juliette Chevalier, Scale Enterprise Companions; Kanu Gulati, Khosla Ventures, and Ari Kelkar, McKinsey & Co., focus on AI and robotics in Boston. Credit score: Eugene Demaitre
