Investments in robotics companies totaled at least $649.5 million worldwide in December, spread over 17 transactions, according to The Robot Report.
The Robot Report said the December investment amount is slightly higher than the $939.3 million that 20 robotics companies raised in November. “But the last two months of the year were down significantly from most other months of 2018,” the publication reported. “For example, $2.1 billion was raised in June, $1.6 billion in July and $1.24 billion in October.
And more than 80 percent of the robotic investments in December came from just two companies: Graphcore and Woowa Bros., which raised a combined $520 million. The other 15 companies raised an average of $8.6 million, The Robot Report said.
Graphcore is a United Kingdom-based chipmaker for artificial intelligence. Woowa Bros. is a South Korean company that owns and operates that country's largest food delivery app. Woowa is developing autonomous delivery robots — one that company officials said could also take back a customer's recycling.