This week brought good news to the Robotics space in the form of new investment for startups, but two established players within the space hit a snag. Amazon’s potential acquisition of iRobot for $1.7 billion, which had previously been approved by UK antitrust regulatorsit is now receiving a thorough review by the European Union.

Our resident robotics expert, Brian Heater, has additional analysis on the deal, and a commemoration of the late industry legend Joanne Pransky, in the latest issue of his Actuator newsletter. Sign up to receive those updates every Thursday here.

And for the rest of the robotics news from the past week, keep scrolling.

Verity’s $11M Keeps the Summer of Drones Going High

Swiss startup Verity announced a new round of fundingabove his $32 million Series B since March. Its deal with Ikea, which has placed 100 of its drones in 16 warehouses across Europe, has garnered a lot of industry attention, and this particular round will go to scale to meet the need to scale to address the growing supply chain automation opportunity. of supply.

Wildfire Detection Automation Generates Additional $17M

Pano AI has been developing cameras capable of automatically detecting wildfires, most recently capturing and sending early alerts on the Kutch Road fire 14 minutes before the first 911 call.

And with wildfires a growing concern around the world in the face of rising temperatures, Pano AI announced a $17 million extension to his $20 million Series A.

Simbe funding increases to $54 million after deal with BJ Wholesale

While Verity’s drones focus on warehouses, Simbe focused on the stores themselves, with its robots roaming the stores to monitor inventory within reach of a customer. The company has just announced a new round of financing with a $28 million Series B which follows its $26 million Series A since late 2019, fresh off its deal that places its Tally robots at all BJ Wholesale Club locations.

Bedrock’s ocean mapping ambitions uncover $25 million in funding

Any construction project requires surveying, inspection and monitoring, and the same is true of the growing volume of subsea projects driven by demand for offshore wind. Bedrock’s autonomous underwater vehicles aim to do that job instead of expensive manned survey boats, and just announced $25.5 million in new funding to expand your mission. Interestingly, their new focus is less on the hardware itself and more on proving the commercial viability of selling the data they collect through their autonomous browsers.

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