Former Cruise CEO Vogt's robotics startup valued at $2 billion in new funding, sources say

By Anna Tong, Krystal Hu and Kenrick Cai

(Reuters) - Kyle Vogt, former CEO of self-driving car company Cruise, has raised $150 million in a new funding round led by Greenoaks for his robotics startup The Bot Company, valuing the firm launched less than a year ago at $2 billion, sources told Reuters. 

This capital injection follows a previous $150 million raised from investors such as Spark Capital and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman that valued the company at $550 million, sources added, as it is trying to build out the hardware and artificial intelligence-based software to power the robots.

It reflects investors' confidence in a company that has yet to release its product and has no revenue, as the appeal lies in the potential of robotics powered by AI models that can learn to do new tasks, which have captured Silicon Valley's imagination.

The boom in large language models is significantly boosting interest in robotics, as LLMs enable robots to process natural language commands and perform complex tasks, which could make robots more intuitive and adaptive for use cases at home or on factory floors. Robotics startups, with various form factors, are attracting substantial funding and attention, marking a new era of intelligent and adaptive robots.

The Bot Company was co-founded by Vogt, Paril Jain, and Luke Holoubek, former engineers at Tesla and GM-owned Cruise. It aims to create at-home robots that assist individuals with daily tasks, such as household chores. While little is known about the design, sources indicate they are non-humanoid robots equipped with a base and grips.

Both The Bot Company and Greenoaks declined to comment.

Much of the excitement in the space is also spurred by humanoid-focused players like Tesla and startups such as Figure, which is currently raising funding at $40 billion with little revenue. Cobot, founded by Amazon veteran Brad Porter, has also raised $146 million for non-humanoid robots that focus on industrial automation. The capital required to build and scale underscores the complexities in developing robots that integrate into day-to-day operations. 

At-home robotics is a category where tech giants like Amazon have already invested significantly. Amazon launched its home robot, Astro, in 2021, focusing on home monitoring and entertainment capabilities. Last year, it decided to discontinue Astro for Business to focus solely on household robots.

Two other robot startups, Physical Intelligence and 1x, have also raised hundreds of millions to create robots capable of daily household tasks like folding laundry and cleaning countertops.  

Vogt and his co-founders are part of a growing pool of talent returning to the robotics space from self-driving. Many startups in this sector aim to move beyond imitation learning to more action-based AI models inspired by large language models, enabling robots to learn movements more efficiently beyond the pre-programmed routines.

The investment in The Bot Company reflects the growing interest in robotics startups, particularly those leveraging AI and spatial intelligence. Last year, VC investors poured $6.1 billion into robotics, up 19% from 2023, according to PitchBook. 

Besides the Bot Company, Greenoaks has previously invested in another robotics startup Mytra which focuses on industrial tasks. 

The San Francisco-based investor has underwritten billion-dollar valuations for young players such as customer service startup Sierra and Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence Inc. It stands to reap $2 billion from its $300 million investment in Wiz's $32 billion sale to Google this week, according to a source.

(Reporting by Krystal Hu in New York and Anna Tong and Kenrick Cai in San Francisco; Editing by Nick Zieminski)