Agile Robots raises $500 million at an $8.5 billion valuation in a round led by SoftBank

Agile Robots has raised $500 million in a round led by SoftBank Group that values the Munich company at $8.5 billion, dpa-AFX reported on Nov. 12. NVIDIA, Hitachi's investment arm and T.Capital, Deutsche Telekom's investment company, also put in money. Agile Robots has now raised about $2 billion since it spun out of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in 2018. The new money is for entering the U.S. market, new industrial applications and manufacturing in Bavaria.

Investors are paying for a humanoid factory years before it fills. The plant Agile Robots opened in Fürstenfeldbruck, near Munich, early this year is designed for up to 10,000 humanoids a year. In October chief executive Zhaopeng Chen told Reuters the company planned to build 1,000 to 2,000 small humanoids in 2027 with NVIDIA. That is 10% to 20% of the plant's capacity. "We are bringing this technology from the lab straight into industrial series production," Chen said.

The round also closed below the figure first discussed. In June there was talk of about $800 million, Trending Topics noted. SoftBank led Agile Robots' $220 million Series C in 2021, and Trending Topics reports that this round is also meant to prepare a possible stock market listing.

The best case for the price is the business that already sells. Agile Robots says it has installed more than 20,000 automation systems, from mobile transport units and robot arms to hands and grippers, for carmakers, electronics, healthcare and logistics customers. It employs more than 3,500 people.