Speed Pitching

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Next month, SOSV will host the latest in a series of VC-founder matchups. Previous events have focused on women’s health, bio-manufacturing, climate, and other topics central to the deep tech investment firm’s portfolio. Despite SOSV’s numerous investments in the space, however, robots have not yet been a focus.  

The firm’s December Robotics Matchup arrives amid an unprecedent fever pitch of investing excitement for the space. Year-to-date funding for robotics ventures hit $10.4B as of last week, besting the whole of 2024 ($7.5B), 2023 ($7B), 2022 ($8.7B), and 2020 ($5.7B). 

“There's a lot of excitement about robotics at the moment,” SOSV general partner Duncan Turner noted on a call earlier this week, “mostly driven by the humanoid robots, but that's definitely having a filtered down effect generally into the robotics ecosystem.” 

SOSV has thus far taken a broad approach to robotics funding. Investments include widely deployed inventory robotics maker, Simbe; well-funded ship hull Roomba, Neptune; age-tech assistive tech, Labrador; dry cleaning kiosk, Presso; and clothing cut and sew “micro factory,” Silana. What you won’t find on the list — at least for now — are humanoids.  

Turner, who also heads up SOSV’s hardware accelerator, HAX, expressed something of a mixed opinion on the humanoid form factor. “I actually really like them, waist up. It's the waist down bit that bothers me,” he explained, referring specifically to a first wave of industrial humanoids that were almost exclusively bipedal. 

“Cautiously bullish” is probably a fair way to categorize Turner’s take on the intensely hyped form factor. The perspective can be boiled down to something along the lines of: humanoids will be useful…eventually.  

“Right now, we're at a point where a bunch of companies have raised loads of money,” he noted. “They will get some product out. I think there will then be probably a delay in them getting to full deployment and you'll see that kind of dip down. And then you'll see those companies rise back up, and that's kind of the time to invest into those humanoid robots. But humanoids for me are more for the home than anywhere else. That's where they really make a lot of sense to me, because that's when you actually want something that resembles a human next to you.” 

In hindsight, at least, SOSV’s bets can largely be classified as a more pragmatic approach to automation. They lack the sort of pomp and/circumstance that comes with robots constructed entirely in our image, but they’re purpose built for a job they perform well enough to attract real customers. Turner cited Neptune’s recent successes as an example of this phenomenon. 

 “You and I were talking about this probably 10 years ago,” he noted. “It's like, ‘where do you see robotics working?’ Dull, dirty, dangerous tasks. We've expanded out a bit from that with the excitement around humanoid robots. What does that mean for investment coming into the sector? I'd say I'd say it's gonna make a bunch of differences. One will be that you'll get some more pragmatic investors that I think will start to look at the space as it continues to get investment in and say, ‘Okay, where can we deploy capital in this area that will make sense?’” 

While Turner explained that robotics’ rising profile amid massive humanoid rounds could spur investors to become more adventurous, a big piece of SOSV’s pragmatism stems from time to market. While deep tech is notorious for long runways, the VC firm is focused on measurable results.  

“Can this collection of founders with maybe one or two first time first hires get a robot into deployment that is starting to earn revenue in like an 18- to 24-month period?” Turner rhetorically posits. “That’s what we have to find.” 

Along with minimal viable product and market fit, SOSV is searching for flexible technologies that could have applications outside their initial use cases. According to Turner, however, it’s the founders themselves the firm is most focused on when it comes to assessing early stage startup pitches. 

“There's a variety of different ways that we assess companies,” he noted. “We're a deep tech fund, but as I tell everyone, we invest in people. We're trying to assess the people, because the founders are the most important ones. We're looking at that person, how they got to where they're at right now, and then what we think that's going to mean for them going forward.”