![]() ![]() This new round of funding will help us scale the company to meet the incredible demand for our healthcare service robot. That brings its funding to date to just under $50 million.Ĭo-founder Andrea Thomaz says the funding will be used to scale up production on its robot, Moxie: The company announced another round this week - a Series B around $30 million. Of course, COVID-19 hasn’t gone away, and neither have the company’s fundraising needs. The Austin-based firm raised $10 million in March 2020 - a fortuitous time (if one can say such a thing about a pandemic). For now, however, we’re seeing a nice big boost for companies like Diligent. I wouldn’t be shocked to see a lot more startups vying for a piece of the market in the next couple of years, having planted the initial seed during the crisis of the last couple of years. I do believe we’re really seeing the tip of the iceberg in terms of the role the technologies will serve, moving forward, both in the hospital and in related fields like eldercare. Access to certain procedures has increased potentially life-saving procedures in underserved areas. Those systems are great for leveling the playing field on specialty surgeries. Robots have, of course, been performing surgery for decades now. It’s safe to say that the past two years are going to have a profound impact on the desire to bring robot help into healthcare. That’s probably as noble a role for robots as anyone can hope. Instead, we’re looking at robots that can augment some of the work - in other words, making human jobs a little easier, rather than replacing them outright. Heck, the bedside manner alone is probably going to end up being an issue. Having watched a few recent videos of robotic arms helping get people dressed, it’s probably safe to say we’re a long way from fully automating any nursing jobs. I’ve seen a number of surveys conducted over the past year, and while the results differ wildly, the consensus is that a majority of nurses have considered leaving the profession recently. Stress, burnout, exhaustion are all words one associates with the gig. “The market has definitely taken a bearish turn,” he adds, “that committed climate VCs are well funded and actively looking for investment opportunities that urgently address the intensifying climate crisis we face.Nursing is a tough job even in non-pandemic years (remember those?). Morrison adds that, while the climate hasn’t been particularly great for fundraising, the firm was still able to find some like-minded investors. “We’ll not only be hiring across many engineering disciplines (from computer vision and robotics to mechanical and electrical engineering), but we’ll more than double the size of our manufacturing and customer teams as we build and deploy many more M.52.” We already have a bunch of roles open and we plan to hire dozens more over the next 12 months,” Morrison says. “Scythe is now just over 50 people and we’re excited to grow the team in the coming years. This new round will - in part - go toward fulfilling its 7,500 existing reservations. Scythe began delivering the mower to customers in Texas late last year and is beginning to deliver them in Florida as well. The last one is certainly intriguing, as Amazon loves to use these as opportunities to integrate its voice assistant into third-party tech, but the company says it doesn’t “have anything to share regarding future plans for integrating voice controls into M.52.” The round was led by Energy Impact Partners and features new investors like ArcTern Ventures, Alumni Ventures and the Alexa Fund. This morning it’s announcing a $42 million Series B, which brings its to-date funding north of $60 million. ![]() M.52 has to withstand the rough treatment of daily commercial landscape operations - like loading and unloading from trailers, moving through tightly packed depots, and jumping curbs in parking lots.” And the demand for durability goes beyond the mowing itself. “Our customers use M.52 to autonomously mow large-scale commercial properties like corporate campuses, parks, sports fields, and HOA complexes, all of which can have steep slopes and tough terrain. “ is purpose-built to tackle the unique challenges of commercial landscaping,” co-founder and CEO Jack Morrison tells TechCrunch. The world of robotic mowers is already a fairly crowded one, but while many are going after home applications (lawn Roombas, if you will), the Boulder, Colorado–based firm is specifically targeting commercial landscapers. Scythe first hit our radar when it emerged from stealth in 2021 with a $13.8 million Series A. ![]()
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