Robotics Raises: CircuitHub, Hellbender, WIRobotics, Deep Forestry, Darwin Biomed

We’re back with another automation startup fundraise roundup for the week of 5/18. This time we’ve got two mobility-focused robotics startups, a company building drones to map forests, new AI-powered cameras, and more.

This batch of companies — and their backers — are based all over the globe, so we've handily tracked them all down and rounded them up into a single spot.

CircuitHub, $28 million, Series A

CircuitHub wants to make it quicker for engineers and companies to get custom circuit boards. The company builds boards using its “Grid” system of robots and computer vision that can autonomously print a prototype or a batch order on demand. 

The western Massachusetts-based company announced a $28 million Series A round on May 20 that was led by London-based venture firm Plural. CircuitHub was founded and is based in the U.S., but with this recent funding round the company plans to expand deeper into Europe and grow its workforce on both sides of the pond. 

Darwin Biomed, €1 Million ($1.16M USD), Pre-seed

Spanish startup Darwin Biomed raised a €1 million pre-seed round ($1.16 million) led by Easo Ventures and Sodena for the development of its smart walker, Michaelangelo. The assistive hardware is designed to predict and prevent potential falls by being able to sense when a user’s posture changes and reacts to help users stay stable. 

The company was founded in 2019 and plans to use this latest batch of funding to continue to work on developing the smart walker as it looks to get both FDA and CE regulatory approval so it can start commercializing the tech. 

Deep Forestry, €3 million ($3.48M USD), Seed

Forests can be sprawling and dense black boxes of trees and vegetation. In many cases, we don't have access to a lot of useful informatio for reforestation and wildfire prevention (among other things). Deep Forestry is building tech to help map these forests. 

The Swedish startup uses autonomous drones to collect data under the forest canopy and uses AI to build a database of a forest’s trees that includes tree types and ages. The company just raised €3 million ($3.48 million) in a seed round led by Fairpoint Capital with participation from Superorganism, SpatialCapital, and others. Deep Forestry told A3 that this recent funding will help them scale their commercial and technical teams and expand into more markets globally. 

Hellbender, $12.5 million, Seed

Pittsburgh-based Hellbender has helped companies and software engineers translate their ideas and prototypes into physical AI products for years with the vision that they’d launch their own products down the line, too. 

The company announced three AI-powered cameras on May 19. Hellbender also announced it raised a $12.5 million seed round co-led by Magarac Venture Partners and Veredas Partners. The startup told A3 that this recent funding round will help it expand its domestic manufacturing for its new line of cameras and beyond with more hardware launches on the horizon. 

WIRobotics, $68 million, Series B 

Seoul-based WIRobotics launched its first product, a wearable robot that provides walking and mobility support, in 2023. Since then the company has built up an extensive database of human movement data from these 'bots. Naturally, it's begun to set its sights on humanoids. 

WIRobotics announced a KRW $100 billion ($68 million) Series B round on May 14 that was led by JB Investment, and includes InterVest, Hana Ventures, and Smilegate Investment, among others, as it looks to continue developing its wearable robots and its future humanoids [featured image].