The last few months have been tough for the technology industry, with headlines left and right about investment down rounds and layoffs at once high-flying firms. Robotics and automation haven’t been immune to these economic headwinds, as VC cash in the space has slowed as well.
New data from Crunchbase illustrates this trend, highlighting that 2022’s $9.8 billion in venture funding was a dramatic fall from 2021’s high of $17.4 billion. Zooming out to 2020, the news is less stark, as the first year of the pandemic saw a measly $6.3 billion of venture capital invested into the sector.
While Crunchbase notes that 2023 is off to a similarly cool start, this feels like a statistically misleading blip of data, given that the snapshot captures less than four weeks of funding news, during a time period where many an investor was more likely to be carving powder in Chamonix or Vail than dotting a signature line on a term sheet.
