Venture Funding Hits New Record: Buoyed by AI, Robotics and Aerospace
Waymo launches nationwide ad campaign, Starship leaves campus market, Prometheus raises $12B
From AV ad campaigns to record funding hauls — June saw plenty of activity across the robotics scene. Let’s dive in!
Delivery Robotics, Drones & AVs
Waymo launched its first nationwide advertising campaign, in the latest sign that autonomous vehicles have gone mainstream. The ads are meant to highlight Waymo’s safety record, while encouraging consumers to rally to bring AV service to their locales.
Talk about a big pivot for delivery bots… Starship Robotics is pulling out of the college campus market, as it refocuses its efforts on supermarket deliveries. While the company had long focused on groceries in Europe, its American operations were centered around 60+ universities; already schools like NCAT are transitioning to new operators. Expect Robot.com and Avride to pick up many of these contracts. Starship currently handles about 1 in 5 grocery deliveries in Finland; CEO Ahti Heinla explained:
“Campus and grocery are fundamentally different operations: One is seasonal and contract-driven, the other is a 365-day urban business requiring different infrastructure, different retail partnerships and a different go-to-market approach,” Heinla said in a written statement to Food On Demand. “The robots transfer; the operational model does not. That’s why we’re focusing where the opportunity is greatest, and for us, that’s grocery.”
Self-driving trucks are bubbling up! PepsiCo signed a new multi-year partnership with Gatik. The AV co’s class eight trucks will ramp up logistics operations in Texas, Arizona and Arkansas.
Irish drone startup Manna pulled out of home country after regulators held up necessary permits.
Food technology platform Wonder is teaming up with aerial logistics platform Zipline, bringing on-demand drone delivery to Texas. Starting in January 2027, customers will be able to order meals, delivered via drone, from select Dallas-area locations. By the end of 2027, Wonder hopes to make drone delivery available from the majority of the 100+ locations its building across Texas.
Taxi app Go pulled off Japan’s largest IPO of the year, raising ¥88.6 billion ($553 million) at an approximately $1.16B valuation. The company, which already partners with Waymo, plans to spend about $50M on robotaxi expansions and acquisitions.
Aseon Labs just raised $10M, in a seed round led by Crane Venture Partners and with participation by Y Combinator and mobility heavyhitters from the likes of Uber, Turo, Nuro and Zimride. The company hopes to build and deploy robotic pods that can be placed in underutilized urban parking spots, letting AV fleets perform charging and cleaning in a more decentralized fashion.
Tesla expanded its Robotaxi service to near Miami, beginning safety validation in the low-rise suburbs of West Miami and Coral Terrace.
Humanoids & Physical AI
Standard Robotics raised $200 million, as it aims to onshore robotics manufacturing. The Series C round values the company at over $1 billion; capital will go towards scaling a manufacturing facility in Glen Cove, NY.
Prometheus raised $12 billion, at a whopping $41B valuation. The company, which counts Jeff Bezos as a co-CEO, is developing AI tools to help engineers more quickly create physical products.
Robot.com, fka Kiwibot, launched the R-noid, a wheeled humanoid geared towards augmenting repetitive tasks like restaurant assistance, packing, folding and hosting.
Agility Robotics, maker of the Digit bipedal robot, plans to go public via SPAC. Agility, which has deployed robots to nine sites, hope to raise $620 million at a $2.5B valuation. We’ll see if this works out any better than the last wave of SPACs…
Automaking giant BMW has deployed Figure’s model 03 humanoid to its manufacturing facilities in South Carolina. Figure 03 sports a number of upgrades over previous models: tactile-sensor hands, wireless charging, palm cameras and speech synthesis.
Niantic Spatial updated its Scaniverse software, allowing users to turn a 360° video capture into a sim-ready USDZ file by combining a Gaussian splat with an automatically generated mesh.
Back of House Automation
Amazon has updated its Vulcan robot, giving the arm the sense of touch. The ecommerce giant is now deploying these machines to fulfillment centers across Europe, with the U.S. to follow.
Remember Zume? While the robotic pizza maker folded over three years ago, evidently its IP is still worth something. Pasadena, CA-based Miso, maker of Flippy (and frequent crowdfunding promoter) just acquired Zume’s technology and intellectual property, including its hardware, software and hundreds of patents.
Farm & Sourcing Automation
What went wrong at Monarch Tractor? The autonomous farm equipment manufacturer raised over $500 million, with dreams of automating and electrifying tasks on vineyards and farms. The Los Angeles Times has a deep-dive post-mortem, noting that much of the tech fell short of promises, leading dealers to sue the company over misrepresentation.
Kiosks, Retail & Self-Checkout
Instacart brings its Caper Carts to Weis Markets, taking cart-powered self-checkout to a ~200 unit chain based in Pennsylvania.
Rhode Island passed a new law — S. 2342/H. 7290 — mandating that stores keep at least one worker on staff for every three self-checkout kiosk.
Industry Trends
North American venture funding hit a new high — $392 billion in the first half of 2026 — buoyed by investments into AI, defense and robotics.
In Other News
Why Krispy Kreme can’t automate its donuts. Avride sidewalk bots complete 600,000 deliveries, as company goes live in Arlington, VA. CargoX raises $250M for autonomous deliveries, helmed by former CEO of Talabat. Nebius launches Physical AI Living Lab, bringing Nvidia tech to Europe. Decart launches Oasis 3, to simulate driving data. Waymo releases new driving benchmark. Lyft Flexdrive takes over Waymo operations in Nashville. Stellantis, Wayve and Uber partner on robotaxis. NTSB probes fatal Tesla Autopilot crash. CaoCao and May Mobility partner to bring robotaxis to Europe. DoorDash Dot bot rolls into active SWAT scene. Proception raises $11M for robotic hands, after settling lawsuit with Tesla. Serve Robotics works with local artists to adorn bots. Acodyne raises €2.5M for autonomous cargo drones. Grocery Outlet picks Afresh’s AI to optimize supply chains. China hits 10k robovans deployed. Hyphen and Motoniq partner to bring physical AI to food automation. Waymo launches loyalty program. Zoox upgrades robotaxi hardware. NHTSA looks to revise robotaxi brake pedal rules. Momenta Global seeks Hong Kong IPO.