5 Robot Startups That Have the Droids You’re Looking For

Think of the tech industry and the most talked-about startups out there, and chances are it’s software that immediately springs to mind. Our minds turn to SaaS platforms that optimise hybrid working practises, fintech payment portals in the B2B space, digital twin technology for construction, sophisticated cybersecurity innovations for the Web3 age, and of course whatever the latest social media and gaming innovations are.

By contrast, startups specialising in hardware don’t tend to generate as many headlines, other than perhaps VR headsets and the like. But, every so often there’ll be some striking news item that reminds everyone of the strides being made in the realm of physical tech.

For example, it was recently announced that the UK’s National Health Service is trialling a robot staff member. Namely, an automated assistant simply called Helper Bot, which rather endearingly resembles a very large penguin, and is helping deliver medicines throughout a hospital in Milton Keynes. The news has prompted us to flag up some startups currently making waves in the realm of robotics, in the UK and beyond.

We kick off with the startup that’s behind the NHS “penguin” droid: the Norfolk-based Academy of Robotics. The company actually came to public attention with its driverless delivery vehicle, Kar-Go. Looking stunningly streamlined and futuristic, even compared to other comparable autonomous vehicles, Kar-Go is licensed to travel on UK roads and has been deployed in trials by the RAF at a large air base.

Founded by serial entrepreneur Pasi William Sachiti, who once appeared on Dragons’ Den to pitch solar-powered litter bins, Academy of Robotics has benefited from crowdfunding as well as the interest of hundreds of angel investors. Its creation of the NHS Helper Bot is a new milestone, and might eventually be rolled out to help alleviate some of the staffing issues in hospitals around the country. In the words of the chief executive at Milton Keynes University Hospital, it’s already being used to “facilitate faster delivery and take some of the pressure off our teams”, so the future looks bright for this burgeoning British startup.

Decades on from the turn of the millennium, we’re still sorely lacking flying cars and robot butlers. But such clichéd complaints about not living in a sci-fi wonderland may soon be consigned to history, thanks to startups like Bear Robotics. Based in the tech hub that is Redwood City, California, the company made industry headlines last year when it secured an impressive $81 million Series B funding round, which came after a lucrative Series A round back in 2020.

The company’s flagship product is Servi, an autonomous robot that can bring drinks and dishes to tables. Gliding around tables like benign, food-laden Daleks (we say this in a complimentary way), the robots are intended not to replace waiting staff, but to complement them and make life easier in busy restaurants. Last year it was reported that Servi robots had already delivered to 28 million tables, travelling over 335,000 miles in total, so we may well see devices like this becoming a common feature in eateries across the world.

Restaurant robots aren’t just making their presence felt front-of-house. Miso Robotics, which is based in Pasadena, California, has created clever machinery for use in professional kitchens. In other words, robots are helping chefs prepare food now, which is a satisfyingly sci-fi-like development.

Its flagship product is Flippy 2, a robot arm which can take over an entire frying station. Guided by cameras and AI, Flippy is able to take chips, onion rings and other foods out of the freezer, put them in the deep fat fryers, cook them, and deposit them on plates and trays. Of course, we’re still a long way from actual robot chefs plating up Michelin-starred meals, and Miso’s CEO Mike Bell says that the intention is to simply automate the more laborious aspects of kitchen work, freeing cooks up to do other things. As he put it in an interview last year, “There'll be a point in time when humans walk into a restaurant and look at a robot and say ‘Hey, remember the old days when humans used to do that kind of thing?’”

So far, so practical. But robots for recreation and companionship are also coming along nicely. A stone’s throw from Miso Robotics in Pasadena, tech company Embodied has raised almost $80 million in funding which has accelerated development of its trailblazing companion robots. The company has garnered plaudits for Moxie, which Wired magazine acclaimed as “the robot pal you dreamed of as a kid”.

Resembling something from a Pixar film, this adorably life-like droid is designed to help children under 10 develop social skills, build confidence and self-esteem, and learn mindfulness techniques. It does this through play, setting educational tasks and “missions”, and chatting to children in an uncannily sentient-seeming way. Cynics may draw comparisons to Black Mirror or Chucky, but there’s no denying we’ll be seeing a lot more toys like this in the years to come.    

It may not be the “sexiest” application of robotics, but this tech is increasingly playing a role in waste management. One company at the forefront is London-based startup Recycleye, which is applying both machine learning and robotic solutions to the industry. On the AI side of things, it offers a tool called Recycleye Vision, which is able to scan and identify 28 different classes of materials in a recycling plant, optimising the sorting process.

And then there’s its robotics arm. Pun fully intended, as Recycleye’s mechanical devices pick out materials much like human arms would, except at many times the speed and efficiency. Indeed, the technology is able to execute 33,000 picks from a mountain of mixed up recycling in any 10-hour shift. Having acquired almost $6 million in funding to date, here’s hoping the company will have a fully-fledged Wall-E at work sometime this century.