BOSTON – At the 2024 Robotics Invest summit in Boston, attendees focused on sessions and panel discussions featuring leaders from across the robotics and venture capital industries.
The summit was hosted by Cybernetix Ventures and sponsored by organizations including the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, Pittsburgh Robotics Network. Robotics Invest took place over two days in Boston and focused on topics like the economic marketplace for robotics companies, along with discussions centered on artificial intelligence, humanoids, sustainability and scalability.
Business leaders share knowledge, develop connections
As part of the opening sessions of the summit, Fady Saad, general partner at Cybernetix Ventures, mentioned how the “second Industrial Revolution is happening right now.” As part of the panel discussion on “Robotics as an Investment Class,” Saad was joined by Eric Paley of the Founder Collective, Lane Bruno of Silicon Valley Bank and Udit Bhatnagar of McRock Capital.
The discussion centered on investments from venture capital firms and financial institutions for robotics startups and robotics companies in search of further seed funding.
One of the main discussion points of the panel involved the development of general-purpose robots. Paley highlighted how technology continues to evolve, and specifically how “as soon as a robotic product goes mainstream, it becomes an appliance.” Saad expanded on this thought by saying “building a general-purpose robot is probably a bad idea.”
Another element all the panelists touched on during this discussion was a robotics company’s ability to pivot. Software-facing organizations today might not be the same five years down the road. If a startup builds a robot in 2024 that focuses on one industry, it’s also possible that the identified use case in early seed funding pitches shifts to another industry down the road.
Bruno mentioned that a “shift in customer behavior” around robot purchases and the RaaS business model also plays a part in these discussions.
2025 Robotics Invest scheduled for June
As the two-day program continued with more panel discussions and networking opportunities, the general consensus from the attendees toward the economic marketplace was positive. Marketplace research in robot spending and funding seems to bolster those beliefs.
Day one’s closing panel discussed the feasibility of humanoid robots and whether the “hype” surrounding the technology was just hype, or a signal of the future of robot development. Aaron Saunders of Boston Dynamics, Brad Porter of Collaborative Robotics, Erik Nieves of Plus One Robotics and Jeff Cardenes of Apptronik held a spirited discussion on the topic. Panelists discussed what exactly a humanoid is - if it needs arms, legs or a face - and its feasibility in different use cases across industries.
The 2025 Robotics Invest event is scheduled for June 10-11, 2025 in Boston.
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