The Bot Company, a robotics startup established by Kyle Vogt, the former CEO and co-founder of Cruise, has secured $150 million in funding. This investment round was led by Greenoaks, as reported by Reuters, although specific details about the deal were not disclosed by Vogt.
Founders and Background
Vogt co-founded The Bot Company with Paril Jain, who previously led the AI technology team at Tesla, and Luke Holoubek, a former software engineer at Cruise. The startup aims to create a robot designed for household chores, marking its entry into the robotics industry.
Funding Journey
This recent funding comes less than a year after the company’s inception in May 2023, where it initially raised $150 million from notable investors including Nat Friedman, the former GitHub CEO, and Daniel Gross, founder of Pioneer. Other backers in this round included Spark Capital’s Nabeel Hyatt, Patrick Collison and John Collison from Stripe, and Quiet Capital.
Vogt’s Transition to Robotics
The launch of The Bot Company occurred roughly five months following Vogt’s resignation from Cruise, which he had founded in 2013 and later sold to General Motors. His departure from Cruise was prompted by a controversial incident involving one of their autonomous vehicles, which resulted in a pedestrian being injured after being struck by a human-driven car before being dragged by the Cruise vehicle.