SANTA BARBARA, CA. – It was a busy and abundant year for seed, crowd, series A,B,C,D and VC funding of robotics-related startups. 128 companies got funded, some multiple times. $1.95 billion, 50% more than 2015 which was also a phenomenal year with over $1.32 billion funded.
Velodyne LiDAR got the most money in 2016, $150 million, with Zymergen and UBTech also getting over $100 million each.
In monthly recaps by The Robot Report, fundings grew until they peaked in August and then dipped in December. August was the month when Velodyne got their $150 million and Quanergy got $90 million. The next highest in August was $35 million for FormLabs.
The colorful chart on the left recaps the number of companies receiving funding by application area. 25 unmanned aerial systems companies got the biggest number of fundings followed by 15 agricultural robotics startups, service robotics for businesses, service robots for personal use, vision systems providers, self-driving systems and mobile robotics and AGVs companies, plus a whole bunch of smaller categories.
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