This week in robotics: Amazon’s iRobot deal hits an EU snag as new funding retains sizzling drone summer season rolling

This week introduced in excellent news for the robotics house within the type of new funding for nascent corporations, however two established gamers throughout the house hit a snag. Amazon’s potential $1.7 billion acquisition of iRobot, which had beforehand been accepted by the U.Okay.’s antitrust regulators, is now getting an intensive evaluation by the European Union.

Our resident robotics knowledgeable Brian Heater has some extra evaluation on the deal, and a commemoration of the late trade legend Joanne Pransky, within the newest version of his Actuator e-newsletter. Subscribe to get these updates each Thursday proper right here.

And for the remainder of the previous week’s robotics information, carry on scrolling.

Verity’s $11M retains sizzling drone summer season hovering

The Swiss startup Verity introduced a brand new spherical of funding, on prime of its $32 million Sequence B from again in March. Its take care of Ikea, which had put 100 of its drones in 16 warehouses in Europe, has attracted a ton of trade consideration, and this specific spherical will go towards scaling to fulfill the necessity for scale to deal with the rising alternative for provide chain automation.

Wildfire detection automation nets extra $17M

Pano AI has been growing cameras able to robotically detecting wildfires, most just lately catching and sending early warnings concerning the Kutch Street Hearth 14 minutes forward of the primary 911 name.

And with wildfires an growing concern worldwide within the face of rising temperatures, Pano AI introduced a $17 million extension to its $20 million Sequence A.

Simbe’s funding will increase to $54M following BJ Wholesale deal

Whereas Verity’s drones deal with warehouses, Simbe’s centered on the shops themselves, with its robots roaming by shops to observe stock inside a buyer’s attain. The corporate simply introduced a recent spherical of funding with a $28 million Sequence B that follows its $26 million Sequence A from late 2019, recent off the heels of its deal putting its Tally robots in all BJ Wholesale Membership places.

Bedrock’s ocean-mapping ambitions uncover $25M in funding

Any building challenge requires surveying, inspection and monitoring, and the identical holds true for the growing quantity of underwater tasks spurred by the demand for offshore wind. Bedrock’s autonomous underwater autos goal to conduct that work as an alternative of pricey crewed survey ships, they usually simply introduced $25.5 million in new funding to broaden its mission. Curiously, their new focus is much less on the {hardware} itself, and extra on proving the industrial viability of promoting the info they acquire by their autonomous explorers.

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