Cryptocurrency-friendly funding agency ARK Make investments has joined a large Sequence A funding spherical for Apptronik, a Texas-based agency constructing humanoid robots.
Apptronik, on March 18, announced the profitable shut of an oversubscribed $403M Sequence A funding spherical, including one other $53 million to the $350 million spherical disclosed in February.
After investing in Apptronik’s Sequence A spherical, ARK has enabled traders to entry the corporate by its ARK Enterprise Fund (ARKVX), which focuses on “disruptive innovation.”
Supply: ARK Funds
“After investing of their Sequence A spherical, the ARK Enterprise Fund is proud to supply traders entry to Apptronik! Obtain SoFi and acquire entry right this moment,” ARK wrote in an X publish on Tuesday.
Mercedes-Benz, Japan Publish and Google amongst traders
Led by California-based B Capital and Texas-based Capital Manufacturing unit, the unique $350 million Sequence A elevate additionally featured participation from tech mogul Google.
The most recent elevate included new traders such because the German automotive big Mercedes-Benz, early-stage tech investor Japan Publish Capital and RyderVentures, a company enterprise capital arm of Ryder System, in addition to a syndicate led by Korea Funding Companions.
Apptronik’s oversubscribed elevate displays sturdy market demand and investor confidence within the transformative energy of embodied synthetic intelligence, or integration of AI into bodily techniques.
Apptronik’s imaginative and prescient: Man plus machine
Based in 2016, Apptronik is a robotics firm that spun out of the College of Texas at Austin’s Human-Centered Robotics Lab with the purpose of bringing forth the subsequent era of robots.
The corporate says it has developed 15 robotic techniques, together with the humanoid robotic NASA Valkyrie, earlier than unveiling Apollo — an AI-powered humanoid designed for industrial work.
Apptronik’s humanoid robotic at trailer unloading. Supply: Apptronik
“We consider that it isn't Man versus Machine, however Man plus Machine that may take humanity into the subsequent stage of evolution,” Apptronik’s web site reads.
According to TechCrunch, Apptronik’s humanoid work dates again to 2013, when the Human Centered Robotics Lab on the College of Austin competed within the NASA-DARPA Robotics Problem, specializing in a humanoid robotic referred to as Valkyrie.
Google’s AI division, DeepMind, has additionally partnered with Apptronik to ship embodied AI for its bipedal robots.
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ARK Make investments’s funding in Apptronik additional strengthens the corporate’s dedication to innovation and expertise, as the corporate’s title acronym itself refers to “Lively Analysis Information.”
Other than Apptronik, ARK has supported a large variety of AI platforms, together with Anthropic, OpenAI, Groq and plenty of others.
In October 2024, ARK reportedly agreed to take a position no less than $250 million in OpenAI’s funding spherical, with the AI agency turning into its third-largest holding within the Ark Enterprise Fund, accounting for five% of its complete belongings.
Seven largest corporations within the Ark Enterprise Fund. Supply: ARK
As of Feb. 28, Elon Musk’s area expertise agency, SpaceX, accounts for the most important share of the fund with a weight of roughly 16%, according to the official web site.
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