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Samsung acquires Viv in a quest to link all its appliances
Source: Viv Labs Dag Kittlaus, founder and CEO of Siri, Inc., produced and uploaded an app into the Apple App store February 2010. The app quickly rose to 1st in the ‘Lifestyle Section.’ In March,...
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Zymergen gets $130 million from SoftBank and other VCs
SoftBank, the Japanese telecom conglomerate, led a group that included Iconiq Capital, Prelude Ventures, Tao Capital Partners, and seven others in a $130 million funding round for Zymergen to help the...
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IFR’s two reports for 2015 show double-digit growth for remainder of decade
Each year the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) surveys and tabulates data from its worldwide network of robotics associations. The two 2016 annual World Robotics Industrial Robots and World...
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The changing landscape of drone funding
CB Insights Drone Quarterly Financing Trends to VC-Backed Companies shows a downward trend. The Robot Report’s monthly funding reports show something different: a change in the nature of drone...
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The delicate balance between brilliance, safety and arrogance
George “Geohot” Hotz Presents the Comma One at Disrupt SF. Source: TechCrunch/YouTube Silicon Valley and other technology centers have their share of brilliant minds. Some of them have similarly...
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October fundings, acquisitions, IPOs and failures
October fundings for robotics-related startups totaled $291.75 million bringing the year-to-date funding figure very close to $1.5 billion. For acquisitions, three of the six companies acquired...
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Zoox raises $50 million for their stealthy Silicon Valley venture
Illustration: Zoox Zoox, the secretive Silicon Valley startup working to build its own self-driving cars, has quietly raised $50 million (in October) in a Series A round led by Composite Capital...
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Digital farms are already a reality
Source: Nesta.org, Precision Agriculture Farmers, ranchers and growers the world over are transitioning to precision agricultural methods, i.e., subdividing their acreage into many unique sub-plots —...
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Lofty goals crash land while B2B drones prosper
Credit: Aeryon labs inc. Key executives leaving (or were requested to leave) Goggle’s drone delivery Project Wing; GoPro recalls all of its newly launched Karma drones and doesn’t offer a replacement;...
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Two robotic stock IPOs coming to market
For the last few years, there have been very few stock IPOs (Initial Public Offerings). Promising companies have been acquired instead, eg: Kiva Systems and Universal Robots. But two robotics-related...
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Let’s hope Trump does what he says regarding robots and robotics
In President-elect Trump's interview with the NY Times yesterday, when discussing jobs, closed factories and factories that may leave the country, he was asked: "Are you worried that those companies...
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US auto industry installed 135,000 robots and added 230,000 jobs
Source: IFR.org In the last six years, (2010–2015), according to the IFR (International Federation of Robotics), US industry has installed around 135,000 new industrial robots. The principal driver is...
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November fundings, acquisitions, IPOs and failures
Seventeen robotics-related companies got funded for a combined total of over $225 million. Four more got acquired. Three went public to raise funds. And one failed. Fundings: Seven Dreamers Labs...
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Self-driving cars, networks, and the companies and people that are...
Source: Intel Intel is establishing an autonomous driving division; hacker George Hotz is open-sourcing his self-driving software in a bid to become a network company; LiDAR and distancing devices are...
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Beijing World Robot Conference drew big crowds and notable speakers
The Beijing World Robot Conference (WRC), sponsored by Beijing City, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the China Association of Science and Technology, was held October 21-25....
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The Robot Report startup map
Frank Tobe’s ‘The Robot Report’ has just launched a great map of global robot startups and he’d like your robot startup information… Please add to our list of global robotic start-up companies by...
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Frank Tobe on “If you had a EUR 100M investment fund, into which robotics...
As the robotics industry continues to grow, enters new industries, and provides new applications, strategic focus is necessary or the overall industry will develop haphazardly and spread out around...
View ArticleFrank Tobe on “What funding scheme is the most conducive to creating a...
Funding new robotic projects in America is mostly done two different ways: (1) strategic funding from NASA, DARPA, DoD, NSF and other government organizations to do the pure science involved in solving...
View ArticleFrank Tobe on “What do policy-makers need to do to keep pace with economic...
[RBI Editors] As an active robotics investor, a leading authority on the business of robotics, and the author of The Robot Report and Everything Robotic, you are at the pulse of the field’s economic...
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What do policy-makers need to do to keep pace with economic development in...
Economic policy may not jump to mind as a hot topic for roboticists, but it is a fundamental and influential driver behind the failure or success of the robotics community as a whole. After all,...
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