LG Electronics puts $60 million into service robot startup

LG Electronics invests $60 million in US-based Bear Robotics. This investment makes LG the largest shareholder in the service robotics startup.

Bear Robotics is a startup based in the US state of Texas. The company focuses on development of service robots, which it offers under the name Servi. The robots are focused serving customers and transporting products to them. For example, companies that are customers of Bear Robotics use Servi to serve food and drinks to customers, among other things.

In doing so, the robot navigates fully autonomously through the environment in which it operates. In doing so, it uses an advanced LIDAR sensor combined with multiple cameras. It is possible to combine multiple instances of the Servi and have them work together. In doing so, the robots synchronise with each other, independently avoiding collision.

After serving products, Servi automatically returns to its post; thanks to the presence of built-in weight sensors, the service robot knows exactly when its load has been successfully delivered. On a battery charge, Servi can be operational for up to 12 hours. Charging takes four hours.

Several large companies are customers of Bear Robotics. These include Japan's SoftBank and US-based Google. Pepsi and Sodexo are also customers, as well as hotel chain Marriott. However, think also of US restaurant chain Buffalo Wild Wings and US Foods.

Over 1.6 million miles have now been covered by the service robots at customers' premises, which translates to over 2.5 million kilometres. In the process, a total of more than 133 million tables have been served.

Bear Robotics' Servi robots are available in several variants. For instance, under the name Servi, the company offers a service robot aimed at versatile applications combined with a large transport capacity. Also available is the Servi Mini, which is a smaller variant of the Servi. This version is aimed at transporting more limited quantities of products to customers.

An XL version of the Servi service robot is also available under the name Servi Plus. This can carry loads of up to 40kg on four trays or in four bins. Users decide how to configure the Servi Plus. It is also possible not to fit trays or bins so that the robot can transport boxes, for example.

The latest variant is the Servi Lift. This version of the service robot can handle lifts, and use them autonomously to reach the right floor in a building. This makes the service robot suitable for applications in multi-storey buildings such as nursing homes, corporate campuses, hospitals and hotels, among others.

Bear Robotics previously raised many millions of dollars from investors. For instance, the company raised $750,000 from investors when it was founded in 2017. A second round of investment followed a year later, with investors pouring $2.8 million into the company.

SoftBank Robotics joined Bear Robotics in 2020 as part of an investment round through which the startup raised a total of $32 million. Bear Robotics also attracted the interest of investors last year; they then put $81 million into Bear Robotics in an investment round.

Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
Image: Bear Robotics