The rise of the robots may be here.

Collaborative Robotics became the latest robotics startup to raise a massive nine-figure round, despite venture funding being stagnant. The Santa Clara, California-based startup locked up $100 million in a Series B led by General Catalyst. Existing investors Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures, Mayo Clinic, Neo, 1984 Ventures, MVP Ventures and Calibrate Ventures participated as well, along with Bison Ventures, Industry Ventures and Lux Capital.

Collaborative has raised a total of more than $140 million since being founded in 2022, per the company

The startup creates what it calls “practical collaborative robots” — or “cobots,” for short — to work alongside humans in sectors like manufacturing, healthcare, retail and more.

“Getting our first robots in the field earlier this year, coupled with today’s investment, are major milestones as we bring cobots with human-level capability into the industries of today,” said founder and CEO Brad Porter, former Amazon vice president of robotics. “We see a virtuous cycle where more robots in the field lead to improved AI and a more cost-effective supply chain. This funding will help us accelerate getting more robots into the real world.”

Robots rake in cash

The round is just the latest big-money raise to go to a robotics startup, as the inclusion of AI in many of these robots in development have wetted investors’ appetites.

It is the fifth-largest round of the year to go to such a startup, per Crunchbase data. In February, Sunnyvale, California-based Figure raised a huge $675 million round at a pre-money valuation of roughly $2 billion. Big-name investors in the round include Jeff Bezos’ Explore Investments and Nvidia among others. The company is developing AI-enhanced robots that it hopes will be able to perform dangerous jobs and alleviate labor shortages.

Thus far this year, robotics startups have raised $2.4 billion, according to Crunchbase. That far outpaces last year, when a total of $5 billion was raised by such startups.

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Illustration: Dom Guzman