Robotics Data Startup Raises $40 Million Led By Bessemer

Before we get to today’s column, Steph and Sri broke news Tuesday night about a flurry of investments VCs are making in so-called “neolabs,” or new labs hoping to exploit approaches to developing AI models and research they say major developers like OpenAI and Anthropic may have overlooked.

These include companies like agent startup Isara, which is raising at a $1 billion valuation; Humans&, a startup building “human-centric AI” raising at a $4 billion pre-investment valuation; and a new lab cofounded by You.com’s Richard Socher that’s raising $1 billion in funding.

Those are some pretty hefty figures and investors seem undaunted by the competition these companies will face from the likes of OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, as well as the high costs of developing models and real risk of failure.

Onto today’s column…

They grow up so fast! Last week, we published our list of the 50 most promising startups, including my four picks in robotics. 

One of those companies, Foxglove, has now raised $40 million in equity financing led by Bessemer Venture Partners, valuing the four-year-old maker of software for robot developers at $150 million before the new capital, CEO Adrian Macneil told us exclusively. That valuation is more than three times higher than its valuation set in a 2022 financing.