Agility Robotics Targets $400M Funding Round for Humanoid Warehouse Robots

Agility Robotics reportedly raising $400M for humanoid warehouse robots

Agility Robotics, the Salem, Ore.-based company known for its Digit bipedal humanoid warehouse robot, is reportedly raising $400 million in new funding according to a report Tuesday by The Information. The report cited a person who has seen the term sheet, which put Agility's pre-investment valuation at $1.75 billion. The venture arm of private equity firm WP Global is leading the fundraising, with participation from SoftBank, according to The Information. An Agility spokesperson told GeekWire that the company was not commenting at this time on the funding report. Peggy Johnson, the former Microsoft executive who stepped down as Magic Leap CEO in 2023, has been leading Agility as CEO for the past year. In a news release Monday, Agility announced new capabilities and advancements that expand the work Digit is able to perform. They include expanded battery capabilities; autonomous docking onto charging stations; additional safety features; new robust limbs and end effectors, giving Digit a wider range of grasping angles; and streamlined manufacturing of Digit. Amazon previously invested in Agility in a $150 million round through its Industrial Innovation Fund, a billion-dollar venture capital fund that backs different forms of supply chain technology. GeekWire saw Digit in action at an Amazon warehouse south of Seattle, where the robots were being tested for tote consolidation, a process that involved organizing and repositioning storage containers after all the inventory has been removed. Digit can autonomously sense, grasp, and move bulk objects such as the totes, while navigating an environment originally designed for humans. Digit stands at a height of 5 feet 9 inches tall and can handle payloads up to 35 pounds. Its head includes internal antennas and LED eyes that blink to indicate which way it's turning. The robot has multiple arrays of cameras and sensors, and a LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) system to scan its environment. It has two robotic arms, and while its legs may look like those of a large bird, such as an ostrich or crane, the company says they reflect decades of research into how humans and animals walk, allowing it to navigate a variety of terrains. In September 2023, Agility announced a Salem manufacturing facility that it said would ultimately be able to produce more than 10,000 robots a year. Other startups such as 1X, Cobot and Figure AI are among companies leading a surge of interest and investment around humanoid robots, according to Pitchbook. An Oregon State University spinoff, Agility is No. 6 on the GeekWire 200 ranked index of Pacific Northwest startups.

Humanoid robot creator Agility Robotics targets $400M funding round - SiliconANGLE

Humanoid robot creator Agility Robotics targets $400M funding round Humanoid robots in the workplace are moving closer to reality with the news that Agility Robotics Inc. is closing in on a $400 million funding round to help it start mass producing its autonomous, bipedal warehouse machines. That's according to a report in The Information, which cites an anonymous source as saying that the round will bring Agility's valuation to a cool $1.75 billion once it has been made official. The investment is reportedly being led by WP Global, with participation from SoftBank Group Corp. Agility Robotics, which refused to comment on the report, is led by former Microsoft Corp. executive Peggy Johnson, who became its Chief Executive last year after stepping down from the CEO role at the mixed reality startup Magic Leap Inc. in 2023. The company is among a number of well-funded startups trying to spark life into the concept of humanoid robots, which once only existed in the realms of science fiction. It's the creator of a bipedal warehouse robot called Digit, which stands at 5-feet, 9-inches tall and is designed to walk around and move like a human, carrying boxes and crates and performing related tasks autonomously. The Digit robots are an expensive piece of kit, currently priced at over $100,000, yet that hasn't stopped companies such as Amazon.com Inc., Spanx LLC and GXO Logistics Inc. from investing in several of them. All told, Agility Robotics has sold around 100 Digit robots to customers, and many of them have already been put to work. Last June, GXO revealed that several of the Digits robots had started work at one of its facilities in Atlanta, with plans to deploy more of them in future. News of the latest funding round comes just days after the company announced a major update to Digit. On Monday, it said Digit is being improved with a longer-lasting battery and features that enable it to autonomously dock itself at a charging station, additional safety features, and redesigned limbs and end effectors, which give it a wider range of "grasping angles", the company said. It also received more safety features, paving the way for Digit to work alongside humans. Agility Robotics's last major funding round was disclosed in April 2022, when it raised $150 million from investors including DCVC, Playground Global and Amazon via its Industrial Innovation Fund. According to data from Pitchbook, the company closed the latest $400 million round on Monday, and Amazon was named as a participant. Last year, the startup showcased Digit's capabilities at an Amazon-owned warehouse in Seattle, demonstrating its ability to organize and reposition storage containers. At the demonstration, the company explained that Digit is able to autonomously sense, grasp and move bulky objects weighing up to 35 pounds while navigating an environment that's designed for human workers. Digit can do this because it's equipped with an array of sensors, including various antennas, LED eyes that blink to indicate the direction it's turning, cameras and LiDAR, which is a Light Detection and Ranging system also used in self-driving cars, used to scan everything in close proximity. Being humanoid, Digit boasts two robotic arms and a pair of chicken-like legs. According to the company, the legs were designed to allow it to navigate a variety of different terrains safely, rather than for their aesthetics. The autonomous capabilities of Digit are powered by artificial intelligence algorithms developed in collaboration with Nvidia Corp. Last month, Agility Robotics said it's expanding its partnership with the chipmaker. It'll be making use of tools such as the Isaac Sim platform for robot simulations, and the Isaac Lab machine learning framework to teach Digit new behaviors. Although there is only a small number of Digit humanoids in the workplace today, the new funds suggest that the company is getting closer to its goal of being able to mass produce its robots. In September, it announced plans to build a robot manufacturing facility in Salem, Oregon that will eventually have the capacity to produce more than 10,000 Digit machines per year. It's worth noting that Agility Robotics is competing in an increasingly crowded market for humanoid robots, though, and many of its competitors have raised some serious cash too. For instance, Figure AI Inc. closed on a $675 million funding round just one year ago, while Apptronik Inc. announced it had raised $350 million as recently as last month. Other rivals include the Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.-backed Rainbow Robotics Inc., which closed on a $181 million round late last year, and the secretive Collaborative Robotics Inc., which is backed by more than $140 million in funding.

US-Based Agility Robotics to Raise $400 Million, SoftBank to Participate

The company recently added new features to its humanoid robot Digit. Agility Robotics, an Oregon-based robotics company, is raising $400 million at a pre-investment valuation of $1.75 billion, The Information reported. The venture arm of private equity firm WP Global Partners is leading the fundraising, in which SoftBank is also slated to participate. This investment reflects growing interest in robotics due to advancements in AI. It comes after other major investments by SoftBank this year, including leading a funding round for Skild AI, a robotics startup in Pittsburgh, and recent reports of investment of over $1 trillion to create AI industrial parks in the US. The parks would likely include factories, where AI-equipped robots operate autonomously to address labour shortages. This is in addition to SoftBank's investment in The Stargate Project. Agility Robotics has previously raised about $320 million, including a financing round last fall led by venture firm DCVC at a valuation of around $1 billion. The company, led by former Microsoft executive Peggy Johnson, who joined as CEO last year, is developing its humanoid robot Digit. This warehouse robot stands 5-feet, 9-inches tall and is designed to walk and move like a human. Digit has been used in warehouses for companies such as SPANX and Amazon. Agility's robots are currently priced at over $100,000 each, with about 100 operating units. The company aims to unveil a robot safe enough to work alongside people by early 2027, the report added. The company also recently announced new features in Digit, including expanded battery capabilities, autonomous docking onto charging stations, streamlined manufacturing of Digit, additional safety features and new limbs and end effectors. Agility Robotics is part of a broader trend, with companies like Google, Meta, and OpenAI also working on humanoid robot software or hardware. Recent improvements in AI have enabled robots to handle more complex tasks, such as recognising objects and mimicking human movements. These include developments from NVIDIA (GR00T N1), Google DeepMind (Gemini Robotics), and startup Figure AI (Helix).