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Kyle Vogt , the former founder and CEO of ego - driving railroad car company Cruise , has a young VC - support robotics startup focused on menage chores .
Vogt announced Monday that the raw startup , called the Bot Company , has raised $ 150 million from former GitHub chief operating officer and investor Nat Friedman , Pioneer father and investor Daniel Gross , Spark Capital general married person Nabeel Hyatt , Stripe CEO Patrick Collison , Stripe cobalt - founder John Collison and Quiet Capital .
Vogt founded the inauguration with Paril Jain , who led the AI tech team at Tesla , and former Cruise software system engineer Luke Holoubek .
“ We ’re building bots that do chores so you do n’t have to . Everyone is busy . Bots can help , ” Vogt compose onsocial media X. “ So many things compete for our fourth dimension — commute , longer make hour , and the complexness of advanced life . Our squad has pass long time building automaton ( include the self - driving variety ) that give people some of that time back , and we ’re taking that a footstep further with this ship’s company . ”
Vogt did not answer to a postulation for comment .
The new endeavor comes five months after Vogtresigned as chief executive officer of Cruise , the autonomous fomite startup that he base in 2013 and was later acquired by General Motors . His resignation followed an October 2 incident that see a Cruise fomite run over and drag a footer 20 feet , after the footer had been hit by a human - driven railroad car . The event , coupled with the company ’s reply , actuate California regulators to suspend Cruise ’s deployment and driverless examination permits , effectivelyending its robotaxi operationsin the United States Department of State where the bulk of its operation were located .
Since his resignation , Vogt has maintained a comparatively low public profile . His return , however , should n’t surprise those who have followed his career . Prior to Cruise , Vogt had co - founded Justin.tv , a website that allow anyone to broadcast video online ; it afterward morphed into Twitch , a springy - pelt platform acquired by Amazon in 2014 for $ 970 million . He also founded Socialcam , which was acquired by Autodesk for $ 60 million in 2012 .
