Robot Investments Weekly: Even Fish Farming Firms Get Funded

In which we cast out our net to find the latest robotics, AI and automation investments over recent weeks.

I’ve been toying with the idea of changing up the regular transactions and investments column – with all of the news going on around the world of robotics, artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, aerial robotics (you get the idea), I’ve decided to reduce the time spent on this particular end-of-week column.

Because I love bullet lists, I’m going to do this column in bullet-list form, after discussing maybe only a few of the more notable transactions. If you love, it, great! If you don’t, that’s OK, too. Send me a note and we can chat about what you’d like to see from this column.

Aurora Innovation scores more funding for self-driving cars

Earlier this week, Aurora Innovation announced that Hyundai Motor Group is part of a more than $600 million funding round, along with Baillie Gifford & Co. The company said the funding would put them “in a strong position to accelerate the development of the Aurora Driver,” as well as add more people to the team and acquire new technologies.

The company has been working with Hyundai and Kia over the last year developing the Aurora Driver’s integration into Hynday’s fuel cell vehicle, NEXO. The company said it would expand research and development of a self-driving platform for a wide range of Hyundai and Kia models.

Aquabyte raises $10M to transform fish farming

When you think about digital transformation, the idea of fish farming doesn’t come to top of mind, but that shows you what I know these days. Aquabyte announced raising $10 million in Series A funding to expand development of its computer vision and machining learning software that ims to “dramatically improve fish farming efficiency.”

The company said fish farming represents the fastest growing food production sector in the world, a $240 billion global industry. Aquabyte aims to arm farms with underwater stereoscopic cameras that determine a fish’s health, size, and optimal feed quantity. Cool.

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