LG Electronics (LG) announced Monday it would be making a strategic investment into Bear Robotics, a Silicon Valley-based AI-driven autonomous service robot startup.
LG said the move would help expedite the advancement of its capabilities in service robotics, a new business area for the company. The investment comes in the form of a stock purchase agreement to acquire a $60 million stake in Bear Robotics. The investment, the companies said, is aimed at bolstering LG’s portfolio for long-term growth. At the close of the stock purchase, LG will hold the largest portion of shares in Bear Robotics on a single-shareholder basis.
“In the service robotics market, we’re focusing primarily on areas such as delivery and logistics. However, we are carefully considering future directions, keeping open the possibility of equity investments or mergers and acquisitions,” LG’s CEO William Cho said.
Founded in 2017, Bear Robotics has gained recognition for its AI-powered indoor delivery robots. The company boasts a team of skilled engineers with backgrounds in prominent the companies. Bear Robotics has drawn attention for its expertise in platformizing service robotics software, robot fleet management technology and cloud-based control solutions.
Officials said LG is preparing to transition toward Software-defined Robotics (SDR), similar to what has been seen in the mobility industry. In anticipation. LG said it is committed to developing scalable service robots in an open architecture software platform that can cater to a variety of environments.