Yet another AI robotics firm lands major funding, as Dexterity closes latest round

The intersection of robotics and AI continues to attract attention from investors and Big Tech alike. The latest indicator? Dexterity, a startup specializing in industrial robots with “human-like” finesse, has raised $95 million at a post-money valuation of $1.65 billion, per Bloomberg.

The investment, which includes backing from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sumitomo Corp., highlights the growing demand for machinery powered by AI and comes amid a wave of excitement from companies like Meta and Apple, which are reportedly exploring investments into AI-powered humanoid robots, and startups like humanoid robot makers Figure AI and Apptronik that have recently secured enormous funding rounds to develop robots for a variety of tasks.

As for Dexterity, its robots are designed to perform repetitive and sometimes dangerous tasks in warehouses and factories, such as loading boxes and sorting parcels, for customers that include FedEx and UPS. Founder and CEO Samir Menon — whose last role was as a PhD student at Stanford — tells Bloomberg the robots use specialized AI models, each focused on a specific task. The outfit has now raised nearly $300 million altogether.