Covariant announced in May last year that it had raised $40 million for its Series B. The funding brought the company's total funding to $67 million. It was a good sum of money. The Berkeley-based AI startup has added $80 million more to its bank account just a year later. This is due to a surge in interest in robotics during the pandemic.Many companies across industries were already looking for significant gains from AI robotics. With COVID-19, the market demand grew by an order-of-magnitude, Pieter Abbeel, president, chief scientist, and cofounder, tells TechCrunch. Our investors are eager to double down on this combination with our previous year of success. We will use the funds to accelerate our global expansion as well as grow our current position in a highly competitive industry.Index Ventures is the current investor in Series C. It features Amplify Partners Radical Ventures Temasek, CPPIB, and Radical Ventures. The total funding for the firm's universal AI for robotic manipulation brings it to $147 million. Universal is the key word in the Covariant Brain's name. The company has already demonstrated how versatile its technology can be over the two years it has been around since its stealth launch.The company employs less than 80 people currently. The company currently employs just under 80 people. Part of the funding will be used to increase its headcount.Covariant's technology has been deployed in many markets in North America and Europe, as well as Asia. It is used in a wide range of sectors, including fashion, pharmaceuticals, and grocery.CEO Peter Chen stated that the Covariant Brain powers a variety of industrial robots. It can manage order picking, sorter induction, and putwall. This is for companies with radically different products. This wide range of applications shows that the Covariant Brain is capable of allowing robots of all types to manipulate objects in new environments.Obeta and Bastian are some of the existing customers.Abbeel states that our platform approach is valued by forward-looking customers because it allows them future-proof their long term modernization strategy. Covariant Brain is able to learn from multiple applications in the warehouse. These deployments are only a small part of what AI Robotics can accomplish for the supply chain.
