FCF Robotics Venture Capital Report - FCF Fox Corporate Finance GmbH

FCF Robotics
Venture Capital Report

The ‘FCF DeepTech Series’ is a quarterly series of reports tracking European venture capital funding trends within four main DeepTech verticals. We highlight deal counts, volumes, investor interests, subsector trends, geographic hotspots, IPO activity as well as M&A / trade sale activity. Each quarter one of the four verticals – CleanTech, Advanced Manufacturing, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Robotics – is examined individually.

FCF Fox Corporate Finance GmbH is pleased to present you another report as part of its research series “FCF DeepTech Series”.

Key findings:

VC Winter – The start-up robotics sector remains under pressure: After the peak in 2021 with €1.9bn in funding volume across 382 deals, the European start-up robotics sector has lost considerable in 2022 and especially in Q2 2023, hitting rock bottom in Q2 2024 (YTD) with €737m in funding across 130 transactions only. This underlines the ongoing uncertainty and the still present “VC Winter” in the sector
Maturity phase – Increasing maturity of the VC robotics sector: While later-stage start-ups accounted for only 12% of the deals in 2019, this share has increased to 30% in 2024 (Q2 YTD). At the same time, the relative importance of early-stage investors such as angels, accelerators and early-stage VCs has decreased slightly from 68% to 65%, which indicates an increasing maturity of the companies in the market
Mega-deals continue to dominate the financing volume: Since 2021, yearly total funding volumes were mainly driven by a few mega deals (>€100m), which reflects the continued selective willingness to invest in this sector:
- 2021 with CMR Surgical (€497m), Agile Robots (€184m, €107m), Skyports (€116m) and eCential Robotics (€100m) – 52% of total volume
- 2022 with Exotec (€295m) and Scandit (€132m) – 23% of total volume
- 2023 with Distalmotion (€142m) and CMR Surgical (€142m) – 20% of total volume
- 2024 with Skyports (€105m) and Medical Microinstruments (€102m) – 28% of total volume
Germany as the flagship of the European start-up robotics industry: German robotics start-ups dominate the European Top 10 (measured by cumulative capital raised since 2019) as 3 out of the Top 10 Robotics companies are based in Germany: (i) Agile Robots (€322m, 3^rd rank), (ii) NEURA Robotics (€182m, 7^th rank), and (iii) Quantum Systems (€111m, 10^th rank). This underlines Germany’s importance as a technological center for robotics innovation in Europe
Weakened M&A market – exit opportunities limited: After the record years 2022 and 2023 with 11 and 12 transactions, respectively, the M&A market for Robotics start-ups has cooled down in 2024, with only 4 successful take-overs so far (Q2 YTD)

DEEPTECH RESEARCH SERIES

The “FCF DeepTech Series” is a quarterly series of reports tracking European venture capital funding trends within four main DeepTech verticals. We highlight deal counts, volumes, investor interests, subsector trends, geographic hotspots, IPO activity as well as M&A / trade sale activity.
Each quarter one of the four verticals – Cleantech, Advanced Manufacturing, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Robotics – is examined individually.

Each report is a quick reference for investors, corporates and professionals for the funding trends within the respective vertical.