US-based bipedal robot producer Agility Robotics has closed a $20m funding round that included electronics manufacturers TDK and Sony, which invested through TDK Ventures and Sony Innovation Fund respectively.
The round was co-led by investment firm and engineering studio Playground Global and venture capital firm Data Collective (DCVC) and also featured MFV Partners and Safar Partners. Matt Ocko, DCVC co-managing partner and co-founder, has joined the company’s board of directors.
Founded in 2015, Agility has launched a robot called Digit that is equipped with lidar sensors and a human-like gait to facilitate movement up stairs, through hallways and across uneven surfaces.
Digit is geared towards manual labour in warehouses and still needs human training before it can learn to navigate unfamiliar environments. It could also be capable of last-mile logistics activities such as bringing consumer goods to a customer’s doorstep from a van outside.
The cash will enable Agility to scale up Digit’s distribution with a view to securing orders from clients including logistics providers and e-commerce retailers. TDK will provide access to its proficiency in sensors, batteries and power management.
Agility had previously attracted $8m in an early 2018 series A round led by Playground Global with contributions from Sony Innovation Fund and Coal Hill Ventures’ Robotics Hub. It followed $100,000 from Williamette Angels Conference in 2016.
Damon Shelton, co-founder and chief executive of Agility, said: “It has never been clearer that our society’s demand for manual labour exceeds our ability to generate it safely, and it is far past time we have a solution which can work alongside humans to raise the bar on quality of life and free up human time.”
Image courtesy of Agility Robotics. The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.