Former Cruise CEO’s Robotics Startup, The Bot Company, Hits $2 Billion Valuation

The American startup The Bot Company, founded by entrepreneur and former Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt, raised $150 million in a recent funding round, reaching a $2 billion valuation. The company will use artificial intelligence to develop hardware and software for non-humanoid household robots

According to Reuters, the funding round was led by the firm Greenoaks. This recent round follows another $150 million investment from a round led by investors such as Nat Friedman—former  GitHub CEO—and Spark Capital last year, when the startup reached unicorn status.

The Bot Company was founded in 2024 by Vogt, co-founder of Twitch and Cruise Automation—later acquired by General Motors—, and Luke Holoubek and Paril Jain, former engineers at Cruise and Tesla.

Investors are trusting the project and the talents behind The Bot Company, despite the startup not having released any products yet and not generating any revenue. This confidence is partly due to the boom in robotics and the current development of large language models. This trend is also reflected in the robot service market in Japan, which is already estimated to triple by 2030.

Anonymous sources told Reuters that the new startup’s products aim to assist people with everyday tasks—including household chores—and the robots the company is developing are non-humanoid machines that have a base and grips.

Investors in Silicon Valley are betting on autonomous robots as recent AI developments are now allowing more capabilities and features, along with more advanced technology. In 2024, VC investors’ funds in robotics reached $6.1 billion, 19% more than they did in 2023 as reported by PitchBook.

The Bot Company would soon compete against tech giants like Amazon which also sells and develops similar products. Other companies have recently announced new investments and developments in robotics as well. A few months ago, Elon Musk said that Tesla would produce and sell humanoid robots in 2026.