Sound Media Ventures joined the $70M Series A funding round by Figure, an autonomous humanoid robotics company. Figure emerged out of stealth earlier this year with a product that aims to change the world for the better. Figure’s vision is for Humanoids to work alongside humanity on a global scale, increasing productivity and helping address labor shortages particularly in undesirable and unsafe conditions.
Figure’s founder and CEO, Brett Adcock, has scaled two previous startups raising $1B+, reaching two successful exits in Vettery &Archer Aviation (NYSE: ACHR). Having seeded Figure just one year ago, he has assembled a 50+ engineering team of AI and robotics software and hardware industry veterans, with 100 years of combined humanoid robotics experience. Together, they are making impressive and rapid progress, expecting to deliver a working prototype this year.
The opportunity to work with a successful serial entrepreneur, who is tackling a huge and complex problem in the largest market in the world (labor, $42T), has us inspired. “With our focus being on media-technology startups, robotics has been a technology of interest,” commented Shachar Oren, Sound Media Ventures’ CEO. “Until now, we have not identified a suitable opportunity and certainly not in a media-specific category of robotics. We are excited about Figure's plan to leap across conventional siloed approaches and create a humanoid platform with limitless possibilities.”
Brett Adcock comments, “We believe humanoid technology has the potential to be the next great frontier technology of our generation and is foundational to the advancement of embodied AI. Our vision is for humanoid robots to work alongside humans on a global scale, starting with the logistics and manufacturing sectors and penetrating more complex areas of the workforce over time. Our business is challenging and unchartered. Having supportive partners, like Sound Media Ventures, that share our vision of the future and help us penetrate the commercial market, is critical.”
The labor force in industrial nations is facing an unprecedented labor shortage, especially in critical warehouse and logistics industries. Mass production of humanoids is a great way to address this labor shortage. Recent advances in computer power, simulation and AI make this moment an ideal time for humanoid robotics to be deployed - much faster than conventional wisdom would assume. The high-tech industry is constantly expanding the ability of software through ongoing machine learning and AI. And with battery efficiency trending higher, while their costs trend lower, the financial business case for humanoid autonomous robots is growing stronger. With experienced leadership and entrepreneurial grit, Figure is poised to address this large and growing market opportunity.
At Sound Media Ventures, we believe that combining AI and robotics will augment and help increase human output – which in turn will revolutionize physical industries.
