Sarcos Robotics, a Utah-based robotics startup, announced to have raised $40 million in Series C, led by Rotor Capital, with several existing investors’ participation. This funding brings the company’s total raise to around $100 million. The company will use these funds to commercialize the “Guardian XO,” its full-body automated robot before the 2021 date. The company has already started taking pre-orders.
Sarcos started from the University of Utah in 1983 as a bioengineering research institution. In 2000, the lab had multiple divisions, such as animated film props, prostheses, and human-computer interfaces. Then in 2006, a DARPA grant moved Sarcos towards defense applications. After that, they started developing prototypes and contracted with the U.S. Navy to pilot salvage robots. Raytheon bought Sarcos in 2007, and until 2015 it operated as a division of Raytheon. After that, Sarcos president and entrepreneur Ben Wolff led a group to acquire venture capital backing.
Sarcos is one of the companies producing exoskeletons for industrial use. Its recent production is the Guardian XO. It is battery powered and works with hot-swappable batteries to offer continuous operation and lift 200 pounds. It has 24 degrees of freedom and a hands-free mode that allows a wearer to lock the suit’s arm to perform lifting options. The company plans to commercialize Guardian XO through a subscription-based, multi-year model that will include maintenance, support, and upgrades. Apart from Guardian XO, it also offers robots such as Guardian S and Guardian GT.
Sarcos’s past customers include NASA, Boeing Ford, the Department of Homeland Security, AT&T, Ford, and Xerox PARC, Merck, and universities like MIT and Carnegie Mellon. The company has a defense division called Sarcos Defense that offers the government machines and robots for defense purposes.
Source: https://venturebeat.com/2020/09/01/sarcos-robotics-raises-40-million-to-develop-an-exoskeleton-for-industrial-applications/
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