Figure AI creates another financing miracle. Who is the company favored by technology giants?

Source: Heart of the Metaverse

According to Bloomberg reports, Figure AI, a startup developing humanoid robots, is raising US$675 million in financing. The pre-financing valuation has reached as high as 2 billion USD .  

What is the origin of Figure AI, the "upstart in the industry" that has received astronomical investment from Amazon founder Bezos and large technology companies such as Microsoft, NVIDIA and OpenAI?  

01.1 Minute Project Overview

1. Project Name : Figure AI 

3. Product introduction : 

Figure AI is building an autonomous universal humanoid robot designed to interact with humans and perform a variety of tasks. It can automatically perform a series of actions, including walking, carrying, and manipulating objects. Application scenarios include warehouse management, logistics and distribution, medical care and other fields.  

4. Founding Team : 

Brett Adcock 

Founder and CEO, He is also a senior technology entrepreneur. It has been 20 years since Brett founded the company, and now his only goal is to spend 30 years building Figure to have a positive impact on the future of mankind.  

Jerry Pratt 

Chief Technology Officer, who works with the engineering team to ensure the company adopts best practices, tools and technologies and researches emerging technologies for inclusion in Figure Robot roadmap.  

Dana Berlin 

Vice President of Strategic Development, responsible for all matters related to the company's capitalization efforts and market strategy.  

5. Financing situation ： 

• 2023 4 On March 19, Figure received US$70 million in Series A financing from 10 investors including Aliya Capital Partners.

• On July 17, 2023, Figure received US$9 million in financing from Big Sky Partners and Intel Capital.

• On February 23, 2024, Figure received approximately US$675 million in financing from Amazon founder Bezos and large technology companies such as Microsoft, NVIDIA, and OpenAI.

02. To benefit mankind” is the company’s purpose

Today, the labor shortage is unprecedented It's happening globally In the United States alone, there are more than 10 million unsafe or undesirable jobs, 7 million of which are in critical positions such as warehouses, transportation, and retail, and the population Aging also makes it increasingly difficult for companies to expand their workforce. 

If we want to break this social bottleneck and allow the workforce to continue growing, we need higher productivity——  This means that more automation is needed to support it At the same time, many difficult and dangerous jobs are not suitable for humans, and there is an urgent need to develop new industries to help humans solve these problems. < /p>

With the rapid expansion of this demand, the humanoid robot industry came into being. 

Expand human capabilities

Nothing Doubt, the emergence of humanoid robots has given humans greater capabilities to create and produce more things, alleviate labor shortages, and reduce the number of workers doing unsafe jobs. 

Adhering to the purpose of "benefiting mankind", The Figure team set a clear goal: Develop universal humanoid robots that will have a positive impact on humanity and create a better life for future generations . These robots can help humans complete unsafe and unsafe tasks. Popular work that ultimately allows humans to live happier and more meaningful lives. 

Currently, Figure engineers are working on a robot that looks and moves more like humans. This research journey will last for decades. Although faced with high risks and extremely low chances of success, Figure is still willing to give it a try. 

According to Figure’s official website, if the research results are successful, they will have a great impact on mankind. Make a huge positive impact and build the largest company on the planet. 

Figure 01: A giant step toward automation

Figure AI The autonomous humanoid robot currently under development is called Figure 01. This innovation aims to bridge the labor gap, improve manufacturing efficiency, and ensure the safety of high-risk jobs.  

Figure AI has made significant promises, both in improving quality of life and in providing strong economic support for emerging markets.  

A notable feature of Figure 01 is its innovative "dynamic bipedal walking" capability   

Unlike traditional robot walking methods that rely on the center of mass to remain above the ground contact point, "dynamic bipedal walking" uses momentum to maintain balance, which gives it the flexibility to adjust to the desired speed and direction Ability to adjust joint twist.  

This technological advancement not only marks a major breakthrough in the field of science and technology, but also has a profound impact on the way humans and robots interact.  

In terms of appearance, Figure 01 conforms to the silhouette of medium-sized women , on the one hand it is for aesthetic considerations, and more importantly, this design reduces the This increases the robot's moving mass, thereby significantly improving its energy efficiency. At the same time, this design also has a positive impact on the interaction between humans and robots, making its appearance more humane and reducing people's sense of uneasiness.  

03. The new darling of technology giants

Although Figure was founded less than 2 years ago and the team size is only about 50 people, the company has been growing Actively recruit all kinds of talents, including elites from established robotics companies Boston Dynamics, Tesla, Apple and other hardware manufacturing companies, and promote the continuous advancement of humanoid robot technology.  

Recently, the company has once again attracted investment from many technology giants with its unique innovations.  

In the latest round of financing, Figure AI successfully raised approximately US$675 million  with a pre-money valuation of US$2 billion. This round of financing has received strong support from many technology giants, including OpenAI, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.  

It is worth mentioning that Bezos has pledged to invest US$100 million through his private company Explore Investments LLC, demonstrating his high recognition and support for Figure AI. Bezos, the world's second richest person according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Ranking, served as Amazon's CEO until 2021 and continues to serve as chairman. His current net worth is estimated at $197.1 billion.  

Microsoft invested US$95 million, and NVIDIA and Amazon affiliated funds each provided US$50 million; in addition, OpenAI had previously considered acquiring Figure AI and invested US$5 million this time.  

In addition, Intel’s venture capital arm, LG Innotek, Samsung’s investment group, and venture capital firms Parkway Venture Capital and Align Ventures also participated in this round of financing.  

In April last year, Figure AI raised $70 million in a round of funding led by Parkway  At the time, CEO Brett Adcock was optimistic about Figure AI’s ability to introduce humanoid robots that perform commercial activities, saying: “Hopefully we are one of the first groups to bring to market humanoid robots that are truly useful and can be used in commercial activities. ” 

Then, in July last year, Figure received US$9 million in equity financing from Big Sky Partners and Intel Capital. The funding will be used to build software and hardware for multi-purpose humanoid robots.  

Now, with the completion of the latest round of financing, Figure AI’s capital reserves are already considerable , providing sufficient ammunition for the company’s future development .  

With the help of this round of financing, Figure AI will continue to increase investment in research and development and accelerate the research and development process of humanoid robot technology.  

04. The AI ​​Robot Competition is officially launched

With the rapid development of AI technology today, iterative updates in the field of intelligent robots are also changing with each passing day.  

As early as April 2022, Diligent Robotics, a start-up company focusing on social robots, received approximately US$30 million in financing and launched the Moxi robot to make up for the shortage of medical staff during the COVID-19 epidemic.  

Tesla also showed no sign of weakness and launched the Optimus humanoid robot that can "dance"; 1X Technologies, a technology integrator favored by OpenAI, launched the butler robot EVE.  

In addition, in February this year, Starship Technologies, led by the co-founder of Skype, raised US$90 million to manufacture street delivery robots with a degree of automation of up to 99%.  

The humanoid robot tracks studied by these companies cover almost all directions: security, home furnishing, warehousing, logistics, commercialization, etc., aiming at the labor shortage and manpower shortage problems in various industries  ;.  

And Figure AI stands out by focusing on advanced “human-like interaction”  The overall pattern is still competitive in the industry.  

Just in January this year, German automobile manufacturing giant BMW announced an important cooperation with Figure AI.  It plans to introduce its Figure 01 robot to the BMW factory in the United States this year to "work"  .  

Thanks to Figure 01’s powerful learning ability and adaptability, the robot will be used in complex manufacturing processes such as body workshops, sheet metal and warehousing. This cooperation not only highlights BMW’s high recognition of Figure AI technology, but also heralds the potential prospects of Figure’s humanoid robots in the automobile manufacturing industry.  

I believe that in the near future, as technology becomes more mature and more investment in research and development is made, humanoid robots will accelerate their implementation to serve people’s real life, replacing some high-risk or efficiency-improving tasks.  

Do you still remember the department store served by humanoid robots in "Doraemon"? Maybe it will become a reality in the near future.  Everyone has an AI intelligence The world of butlers is not far away from us .