1Q2017-Report Vf
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
robotics business review First Quarter TRANSACTIONS REPORT 2017 RoboticsBusinessReview.com AI, Self-Driving, Government Spending Big deals for Q1 2017 Leads Quarter, but Drones Falter Let’s look at the industries and companies By Jim Nash involved in about 100 recent automation transactions, as well as the largest deals. Every four to eight years, U.S. politics joins global economic and technology trends as Consumer and automotive development was a financial market influencer. Rarely has the most active area for robotics deals during this been truer than this year, as robotics the quarter by far, with about 30 financing businesses try to figure out -- tweet by Donald deals announced. In fact, the period’s biggest Trump tweet -- which shoe is next to drop in deal was Intel Corp.’s $15.3 billion purchase of Washington, D.C. Mobileye NV. The Israel-based machine-vision darling reportedly owns 70% of the market for Consider that investments and deal volume driver-assist and collision-avoidance systems could rise, perhaps dramatically, under the for cars. new administration. President Trump’s “America first” campaign promises could make Intel also took a 15% stake in Dutch-held transactions between domestic buyers and digital map services firm Here. Its real-time, sellers more attractive than those that cross cloud-based services are designed for use in U.S. borders. autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles. As it is, deals of all kinds remained on hold Intel has declined to say what it paid, but through the first quarter of 2017 as executives executives did say that shares were purchased waited for the president’s promised radical tax from three indirect Here shareholders: Audi, reform, said Elizabeth Lim, a research editor at BMW, and Daimler. Indirect shareholders corporate finance analysis firm Mergermarket. directly own shares of a company that, in turn, owns shares in a third company. Some observers have said that’s why Tier 1 CEOs continue to tolerate the new president’s The automotive industry’s seven Q1 deals very public scolding of the tech industry. They overlapped with consumer-related financings. may hope that the White House will let them The largest commitment came from Ford bring profits stashed offshore into the U.S. Motor Co., which pledged a five-year, $1 without significant penalties. billion investment in Argo AI. Now the major shareholder in the AI hardware and software A lot of that repatriated cash could fund startup, Ford hopes to incorporate its products mergers and acquisitions. That is surely into its first autonomous cars, due in 2021. the case with robotics, an underperforming industry that is primed to change everyday life Drone maker Lily crashes at least as much as the industrial and Internet revolutions. However, not all financing news in the consumer sector was positive last quarter. Lily So far, robotics deal trends in the first quarter Robotics, a crowdfunded, would-be maker of of 2017 were generally in line with 2016 results autonomous consumer-class drones, filed for -- merely respectable. bankruptcy in February. Recent Mergers & Acquisitions Lily’s sprite-like camera quadcopter was billed as able to wirelessly follow snowboarders Quarter No. of M&As Estimated Value * down a slope, for example. But executives Q1 2016 18 $1.5 billion allegedly released misleading marketing Q2 2016 23 $10 billion material, and production demands swamped the startup. More than 61,000 units were Q3 2016 24 $5.2 billion ordered, but none shipped. Q4 2016 22 $1.2 billion Q1 2017 19 $1.6 billion Our survey of deals found no single dominant, private-sector investor in terms of number of * -- About half of the merger and acquisition announcements agreements announced. No private companies didn’t publicly provide amounts, so these estimates are on the signed more than three deals in the quarter. low side. Intel Capital was one of the few companies that was active in the quarter. RoboticsBusinessReview.com 2 Uncle Sam wants robotics In something of a trend, the Office of Naval Research also awarded a $719,000 grant to The U.S. government, however, participated in Veronica Santos, a University of California -- at least four deals. Los Angeles associate professor, for work on robotics that can handle and dispose of live In January, the U.S. Department of Defense ordnance. awarded $80 million to a nonprofit institute led by Carnegie Mellon University. American AI investments continue Robotics plans to focus on new ways to apply robotics to manufacturing. Another $173 Drilling down a bit into the first quarter, million from numerous industry partners companies continued fund artificial pushed the total investment to $253 million. intelligence efforts. Six companies tracked by Robotics Business Review participated in The Army’s Small Business Innovation externally directed investing. Research office in January issued a $1 million grant to RE2 Robotics, which is developing The biggest investment here may not robotic manipulation systems designed to strictly belong on this list, but its size and assist combat medics. This was the second the company involved mandate a mention. phase of development grants, the first of Dyson Inc., the U.K.-based maker of consumer which was awarded to RE2 in December for goods that either inhale (vacuums) or exhale manipulator systems. (fans) has committed to building a $2.5 billion research campus for AI, cordless robotics, and A month later, RE2 received another Defense sensor products. Department grant through the Office of Naval Research, this one to build inflatable Dyson originally developed innovative underwater dual manipulators. No dollar value mechanical technology for vacuum cleaners, was given for the award. The Navy’s goal making them interesting for the first since is to remotely (and, thus, more safely) find maybe the 1950s. Then it unveiled tiny, and identify ordnance, including improvised autonomous home vacuum cleaners. explosive devices. RoboticsBusinessReview.com 3 After Ford’s $1 billion stake in Argo AI, the Pick and Place Robot next largest AI investment in the quarter was Ready as RightHand Robotics Raises a $100 million Series A round for CloudMinds $8 Million Inc. The Chinese startup, which is developing AI as a cloud-based service for robotics RightHand Robotics Inc., which has developed including humanoid models, did not say who robotic systems for e-commerce order put in the money. fulfillment, has raised $8 million in Series A funding. The company today also released its Previous investors in CloudMinds include RightPick offering, which combines hardware SoftBank Group, Hon Hai Precision Industry and software for “piece picking,” or pick and (Foxconn), Walden International, and Keytone place of individual items. Ventures. Playground Global led the funding round, Also of note was a January $15 million venture which also included Dream Incubator, Matrix placement from several partnerships, including Partners, Seven Seas Partners, and angel iRobot Ventures. investors. SenseLabs makes software that monitors “RightHand Robotics has created a connected and even unconnected electrical transformative technology combining machine appliance. For example, the product can learning and smart hardware to address presents homeowners with records of power a tremendous opportunity in the logistics use and device activity. industry,” said Andy Rubin, founder and CEO of Playground Global. “For the first time, Is this the calm before the buyout storm? affordable industrial robots can grasp things they have never seen before.” RoboticsBusinessReview.com 4 The company plans to use that capital to to business factors and solving commercial expand staffing, product development, and needs.” marketing. Somerville, Mass.-based RightHand Robotics already employs researchers who are alumni of the Harvard Biorobotics Lab, MIT, and the Yale GRAB Lab. “We started out with three Ph.D.s in robotics, said Leif Jentoft, co-founder of RightHand Robotics and a Harvard graduate. “We’ve been in stealth mode for about three years now.” “We have 20 employees, give or take a few interns,” he told Robotics Business Review. “We’re interested in growing out in the sales and account manager space. We have the technology in place and are interested in scaling out.” Watching the warehouse market Global shipments of warehousing and logistics robotics will increase from 40,000 units worth $1.9 billion last year to 620,000 units worth $22.4 billion by 2021, according to research firm Tractica LLC. “The market is experiencing strong growth, with many prominent companies showing greater confidence in new robotics technologies that can yield a return on investment in less time than it took a few years The RightPick work cell from RightHand Robotics is ago,” said Tractica. ready for the supply chain. “I see a lot of companies with cool ideas, but Pick and place evolves they need to understand what’s needed and what’s possible,” Jentoft said. “Two of our three “We got started with the 2010 DARPA co-founders shifted fulltime to studying what Autonomous Robotic Manipulation challenge, companies need.” building hands for IED [improvised explosive device] disposal,” Jentoft explained. “Being “We looked at logistics, healthcare, the military, able to deal with dynamic environments has and manufacturing, but we kept coming enormous relevance to logistics.” back to e-commerce order fulfillment,” he recalled. “There’s a huge shortage of people for “We’re at the right place at the right time,” he picking in warehouses, which represented an added. “Five years ago, we didn’t have depth opportunity.” cameras, we didn’t know about machine learning, and we didn’t have the production The team and business plan helped RightHand techniques.” Robotics with getting funding, according to Jentoft. RightPick includes a “sensorized” gripper that works with industry-leading robotic arms. The “We had a good connection between a strong system’s back end uses machine learning to group of people building the technology distinguish and handle multiple types of items.