In 2024, the changes in the robotics industry are unexpected. According to the incomplete statistics of the new strategic mobile robot, in 2024, more than 10 robot enterprises have retired due to the fierce “battle” in the market, difficult to break through the technical bottleneck, the market demand, and the rupture of the capital chain.
Dextrous Robotics: Failed to raise enough funds to start the product production
In January 2024, Dextrous Robotics, an American vehicle unloading robot company, announced its dissolution. Dextrous Robotics Founded in 2019, it is a US-based startup that has developed a chopstick-like robot that can unload boxes from a trailer. Since its inception, Dextrous has raised about $8 million in funding. However, the company failed to close another round of funding to begin production of its commercial version of the DX-1 robot. The DX-1 robot is a fully customized robot that rarely uses off-the-shelf parts, pushing each unit bill of Materials (BOM) to over $300,000.
Dextrous Robotics Operations director Suzanne Drumwright said Dextrous should raise more money during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.”It would be more helpful if we raised more money during the COVID-19 pandemic,” she said.”That time has made us aware of the expansion of the demand for such robots. We were happy to get seed funding, but we didn’t realize how rare the opportunity is for the market to focus on their technology, and now, venture capitalists are no longer writing as many checks.”
RoboTire: The robot tire replacement market is still not opened
In January 2024, RoboTire, a US-based automotive technology startup, filed for bankruptcy protection over financial issues with a $12.7 million (about 91.13 million yuan) in debt.
Founded in 2018, the company has said it plans to speed up vehicle maintenance in auto repair shops, fleet operators and dealers, hoping to normalize fully automated robotic tire replacement. To that end, the company developed a robot, claiming that it took less than 15 minutes to change four tires, and that the car was needed to allow the robot to reach the arm. The company says the robot could add $10,000 a month to store revenue. Within two years, the store is expected to recoup its costs and continue to be profitable.
On October 8,2021, it completed A series A financing of us $7.5 million, led by Discount Tire, the largest tire direct sales chain brand in the United States. Since then, RoboTire has piloted many systems across the United States to increase business development, but soon faced financial difficulties. In December 2023, American Capital Services filed a lawsuit against RoboTire and Darolfi, alleging that the company owed more than $130,000 after defaulting in October. In early 2024, the RoboTire filed for protection in the U. S. Bankruptcy Court of Delaware.
SRC: Investment still comes in before the capital chain runs out
In February 2024, the UK Small Robot Company (SRC) was closed due to its failure to obtain the funding needed for the next phase. Despite signing the terms book, the waiting investment failed to materialize until the company’s capital chain ran out.
SRC Small Robotics, founded in 2017 by Ben Scott-Robinson, Sarra Mander and Sam Watson Jones, is a sustainable agricultural technology startup based in Salisbury, UK, focusing on developing small robotics technologies for agriculture. The company’s core products include autonomous agricultural robot platforms such as “Tom,” a platform for weeding, and “Wilma,” an artificial intelligence system for identifying weeds. The company has raised $13.18 million in six rounds of funding, and has grown to more than 50 employees. The latest round of funding was in September 2022.
Embodied: Closed due to key financing failure
In December 2024, Embodied announced that it would close operations due to financial difficulties, and that Moxie, a robot that provides emotional support for children, would stop working.
Embodied Is a companion robot startup founded in 2016, and its flagship product Moxie is a social assistance robot designed to help children in social, emotional and cognitive development. Moxie has had more than 4 million conversations with children since its launch in 2020. Previous investors included Intel’s Ventures Intel Capital, Toyota AI Ventures, Amazon Alexa Fund and SONY Innovation Fund.
Embodied The main reason for the announcement was the failure to complete a critical round of financing. According to Embodied, the company had already found a major investor willing to invest, and was ready to complete the financing. However, at the last moment, investors suddenly withdrew their funds, causing the company into trouble. “Although we tried to find alternative funds, we failed to find the right investors in time to keep the company running”.
BionicHIVE: Financial collapse due to war and foreign investment channels
In December 2024, Israeli robotics maker BionicHIVE had accumulated about 66 million (about $18 million) in debt and filed a liquidation request in Be’er Sheva District Court. BionicHIVE is a privately owned company based in Israel, founded in 2014 by Liran Raizer, Itamar Levy, Tomer Amit and Olivier Haddad. At its peak, the company employed 30 employees. One of its main investors is the global e-commerce giant Amazon.
According to BionicHIVE, its financial collapse was due to the impact of the war on the Israeli economy, particularly the impact of heavily relying on investment capital on the high-tech sector. The company said that despite significant efforts, it was struggling to recover because it was cut off from —— foreign investors, its main channel of financing. This was attributed to investors’ reluctance to invest in Israeli companies during the conflict. In addition, the company cited other war-related situations, resulting in severe cash flow shortages that prevented it from continuing to operate or fulfilling its financial obligations.
Kivnon Logistica: Challenged by the auto industry and caused a chain reaction, and the final debt of 260 million yuan
In December 2024, Kivnon Logistica, a Spanish supplier of Automatic guided vehicles (AGV), entered bankruptcy proceedings to restructure. Since its inception in 2007, Kivnon Logistica has installed over 6,000 robots around the world, and its product portfolio includes 10 different models of AGV. These vehicles are commonly used in manufacturing and storage for material processing and logistics applications.
When asked about the reasons for the bankruptcy, a Kivnon Logistica spokesman said, ” The AGV market has undergone significant changes recently, especially influenced by the challenges of the automotive industry, which is one of the biggest adopters of mobile robotics technology. This has produced a ripple effect, slowing down the growth in certain areas.”
According to public information, the company’s financial statements show assets of 25 million euros ($26.4 million), liabilities of 20 million euros ($21.1 million) and 15 million euros ($15.8 million) owed to financial institutions. Despite generating revenues of 19 million euros ($20 million) in 2023, the company reported a pretax loss of 800,000 euros ($845,000).
Raymi Technology: Product updates have failed to keep up with market demand
On December 15,2024, ROIDMI released its official website and notice on its official Weibo that the operation will terminate. According to the notice, due to the changes in the market environment and the adjustment of the company’s business strategy, ROIDMI has had to make a difficult decision to end the brand operation.
Founded in 2015, Rumi Technology, in the seed round in 2014, and obtained the investment of Lei Jun Shunwei Capital and Xiaomi Group, together with Chase, stone, Yunmi, Shunzao, sprinkle wow card, Delma, Xingyue and known as the millet sweeping robot “raise eight children”. Thanks to the investment and incubation of Xiaomi ecological chain, it successfully transformed into a clean electrical product company developing wireless vacuum cleaners and sweeping robots in 2017. In April 2018, Rimi handheld wireless vacuum cleaner was launched on Xiaomi crowdfunding, with 12,000 orders, and a crowdfunding completion rate of 6,141%. INDIEGOGO shows that the crowdfunding completion rate of Rui sweeping robot is 6,141%. In 2022, the company will achieve an annual revenue of about 600 million yuan, and its products will sell well in 65 countries around the world.
However, from 2021, the overall sales of the sweeping robot market have declined, and the industry has entered a cold winter. It not only had a slow product update, gaining market share by competitors such as Stone and Chase, but also suffered from equity disputes with Xiaomi and internal management problems, and the operation was finally terminated on December 15,2024.
In addition, there are some robot enterprises are also in the turmoil. In July 2024, Guangdong Baole Robot, an intelligent cleaning robot developer established nearly 12 years, announced bankruptcy and reorganization, the future is unknown…
epilogue:
The collapse of robot enterprises in 2024 has undoubtedly sounded the alarm for the whole industry, but this crisis also breeds new hope.
Is the so-called “ebb tide more see the foundation”, for those who are in the plight of the enterprises, this is a test, but also an opportunity to change. By learning the lessons of bankrupt enterprises, constantly adjusting their strategies, increasing investment in innovation and optimizing operation management, they are expected to stand out in the fierce market competition and continue to increase the development of the robot industry.
“A thousand sails passed by the side of the sinking boat, and a thousand trees rose before the sick tree.”Every industry will always have a trough, the bottleneck period is temporary, the development is tortuous forward. In the longer term, the robot industry has a broad prospect. With the continuous breakthrough of technology, the gradual release of market demand and the continuous support of policies, the future is still full of infinite possibilities. And we, as witnesses and participants in the development of the industry, we also look forward to the robot industry can usher in a more gorgeous rainbow after the wind and rain, and continue to make contributions to the process of human civilization.
