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LG Electronics may no longer be a menage name in smartphones , but it still see a vainglorious hereafter in convenience like robot . Today , the companyconfirmeda $ 60 million investment inBear Robotics , the California startup that makes artificial intelligence – powered server robot ( autonomous tray towers on wheel that are meant to replace waiters ) for restaurants and other venue . With the investiture , LG Electronics becomes Bear ’s largest shareholder .
Bear ’s last fundraise in 2022 valued the ship’s company at just over $ 490 million post - money , perPitchBookdata . It ’s not clear what the evaluation is for this latest investment , butthe last year has not been a not bad onefor startups in the blank .
On the other paw , the current vogue for all things AI , and the general advances that are coming with that , are giving robotics actor a bonus — seeyesterday ’s Covariant intelligence , for another example . Still , it ’s not vindicated what Bear hopes to tackle next with the introductory tray - on - wheels form ingredient that it has adopt for its flagship Servi robots .
We ’ve contacted Bear and LG for further commentary .
The Bear investment come nearly two months after LG CEO William Cho suggest at LG ’s stake in fairness investments in robotics specialise in delivery and logistics at CES 2024 in January : The company is putting money where its mouth is .
AfterLG keep out down its struggling Mobile River businessglobally in April 2021 , the Korean electronics and appliance giant shifted its commercial enterprise focus to other growth areas , including smart homes , connected devices , the net of Things ( IoT ) , electric vehicle ( EV ) components , and robotics and unreal intelligence platforms .
“ As the service automaton market participate a flow of growth , this equity investment will importantly bestow to securing a ‘ Winning competitive bound ’ for the companionship , ” Lee Sam - soo , principal scheme military officer at LG Electronics , state in a instruction . “ From a mid- to long - term perspective , we will look for to educate our robot business into a novel growth engine , exploring various opportunities through the integration of cut - boundary engineering science such as Embodied AI and robotlike manipulation . ”
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This investment funds is not LG ’s first automatic business organization . The Korean electronics company has been research and modernize software and ironware in robotics for geezerhood . In 2017 , LG deploy guide robot at South Korea ’s largest airport , Incheon International Airport , per its affirmation .
Bear was set up in 2017 by John Ha , a former Google software engineer - call on - restauranter , who witnessed how challenging thing could get . Ha ’s firsthand experience with the challenges of running a restaurant inspired him to develop serving robot .
Bear Robotics target eatery staffing shortages with another $ 81 M heave
The SoftBank backed startupoperates its indoor delivery robots in the U.S. , South Korea and Japan . These serving robots , designed to facilitate deliver food to restaurant customer , have been successfully deploy in various options .
“ Just as Android inspire the smartphone era , standardised loose chopine are essential for the activation of the robot market , ” Ha said .
Just last month , LG ’s CEO had a group meeting with Meta founder Mark Zuckerbergto discuss a possible collaborationism for developing extended reality ( XR ) machine . In late November , LG set up anextended realism ( XR ) teamas part of an organisational reshuffle to expedite the evolution of an XR twist , aiming for 2025 .
