"When Seth Winterroth left his job at GE Ventures to help launch Eclipse Ventures in 2015, robotics was on his mind. Or more specifically, the number of early-stage robotics startups that were struggling to launch due to lack of interest. "These are teams that had just finished their postdocs at Waterloo, or CMU, or MIT, and were starting robotics companies, and the refrain that I continually heard from the startups was, 'hey, we're having a really hard time raising institutional venture capital,'" Winterroth told TechCrunch."
"Investors poured $6 billion into robotics startups in the first seven months of 2025 according to Crunchbase data. The data company predicts that this year's funding totals will eclipse 2024, making it one of the only non-AI categories to experience a boost in funding. While one could argue that robotics is seeing a surge in investor interest because of AI - and it's not wrong to acknowledge AI's role in the advancement of robotic tech -"
Seth Winterroth left GE Ventures to help launch Eclipse Ventures in 2015 after observing early-stage robotics startups struggle to attract institutional venture capital. Many university-trained teams found fundraising difficult while Silicon Valley capital concentrated on mature application layers. Over the past decade the robotics market matured, and hardware and software powering robots became significantly better and cheaper. Venture investment accelerated, with investors putting $6 billion into robotics startups in the first seven months of 2025 and funding projected to surpass 2024, making robotics one of the few non-AI categories with increased funding. The 2013 acquisition of Kiva Systems by Amazon acted as an early catalyst for industrial robotics adoption.
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