Heartland Robotics today announced that it raised $20 million in a series B venture round led by Highland Capital Partners. Other investors include Sigma Partners and existing investors Bezos Expeditions and Charles River Ventures. The Boston-based company previously raised $7 million in August, 2009.
The founder of Heartland Robotics is Rodney Brooks, a former AI reseracher at MIT and one of the co-founders of iRobot. Instead of making robot vacuum cleaners, time around Brooks is developing a new class of manufacturing robots. I normally don’t quote from a press release, but this Brooks quote sounds like something straight out of an Isaac Asimov novel:
“Our robots will be intuitive to use, intelligent and highly flexible. They’ll be easy to buy, train, and deploy and will be unbelievably inexpensive. Heartland Robotics will change the definition of how and where robots can be used, dramatically expanding the robot marketplace.”
They sound so harmless, don’t they? Let’s just hope these robots obey the Three Laws of Robotics. I wonder if they’ll be friends with the Anybots.
Based in Boston, MA, Rethink Robotics, Inc. developed the world’s first robot with common sense to increase productivity and efficiency in manufacturing environments. Introducing robots into places that have never been automated before, Rethink’s Baxter™ is a safe, affordable, easy to use collaborative robot that is making manufacturers more efficient, their workers more productive and keeping jobs from migrating to low-cost regions. Baxter was one of Time magazine’s top inventions of 2012, and has been featured on...
Founded in 1988, Highland Capital Partners is a global venture capital firm focused on putting the entrepreneur first. With offices in Silicon Valley, Boston and Shanghai, Highland has raised over $3 billion in committed capital and invested in more than 225 companies, resulting in category-defining businesses across consumer and enterprise technology. Investments include 2U, Ask Jeeves, Bromium, Calxeda, Leap Motion, LevelUp, Lycos, MapQuest, Nebula, QD Vision, Qihoo 360, Quattro Wireless, RentJuice, Rent the Runway, Starent Networks, Sybase, Violin Memory,...
Bezos Expeditions manages Jeff Bezos’ personal venture capital investments.
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