Bright Machines, a US-based robotics software startup incubated by supply chain services provider Flex, agreed to a reverse merger with special purpose acquisition company SCVX yesterday.
The deal includes a $205m private investment in public equity (PIPE) backed by insurer XN and SB Management, a subsidiary of telecommunications group SoftBank, as well as financial services firm Fidelity Management and Research and hedge fund Alyeska Investment Group.
Investment firm Hudson Bay Master Fund is also participating in the PIPE financing. Together with the $230m held in trust from SCVX, Bright Machines will receive a total of $435m in gross proceeds and will fetch a pro forma valuation of $1.1bn.
The merger is expected to complete in the second half of the year, when Bright Machines will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange as BRTM.
Founded in 2018, Bright Machines markets a software platform that exploits artificial intelligence, computer vision and cloud computing to deploy flexible-use robots for repetitive tasks in factories.
Carl Bass, chairman of the board at Bright Machines, said: “It is clear that Bright Machines’ differentiated, software-driven approach to industrial automation has the potential to completely upend traditional manufacturing methods.
“The company has demonstrated product-market fit and is seeing accelerating customer interest and broad deployment of their solutions. The opportunity in front of the team is simply enormous.”
Bright Machines emerged from stealth in 2018 with $179m in series A capital led by Eclipse Ventures. Other participants were not disclosed and it appears to have been the company’s only funding round.
