SoftBank backs robot startup as Masayoshi Son goes on the offensive

SOFTBANK Group joined a US$170 million funding round for a robot maker, adding to its investment portfolio after founder Masayoshi Son said he’s going back on the offensive.

Tokyo-based Telexistence said it raised a Series B round backed by SoftBank, a fund set up by Hon Hai Precision Industry and CTBC Financial Holding, Globis Capital Partners and earlier investors, without giving a breakdown. It’ll use the funds to expand to the US and increase headcount, the startup said on Thursday (Jul 6).

Telexistence robot arms help stack shelves across 300 FamilyMart convenience stores in Japan, and the company is looking to scale up its operations to bigger tasks and customers. 

Many of SoftBank’s previous forays into robotics have faltered, including its discontinued humanoid robot Pepper and the Vision Fund’s US$375 million investment in failed robot pizza startup Zume. The Japanese investor also bought Boston Dynamics from Google in 2017, seeking to market the startup’s two- and four-legged machines, but sold control of the business to Hyundai Motor a few years later.

Telexistence said it will enter a strategic partnership with SoftBank Robotics Group, a subsidiary of the investor, to commercialise its robots in North America. The startup already works with US tech firms Microsoft and Nvidia, whose cloud and artificial intelligence tech helped develop its robot arms. SoftBank Robotics and Globis will get board seats at the six-year-old startup.

Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn, is investing via a joint fund set up with CTBC aimed originally at investing in electric-vehicle ventures. The Taiwanese manufacturer previously assembled the US$1,370 Pepper. BLOOMBERG