RoboBusiness: a VC’s perspective on the state of robotics investment

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Robotics is a rapidly evolving field. Over the last five years, the robotics industry has witnessed the rise and fall of autonomous vehicles as a category. At the same time, we’ve seen the emergence of a new category known as “vertical robotics,” where companies focus on industry-specific vertical use cases. Early successes have centered around logistics, defense and security, and medicine. The autonomous vehicles category yielded a better understanding of how to build successful robotics companies and educated a new generation of experienced entrepreneurs and operators in the robotics space.

At RoboBusiness, which takes place in Santa Clara, CA, on October 18-19, Sanjay Aggarwal, a Venture Partner at F-Prime Capital, will discuss what to expect in the robotics industry in the coming five years, how it will continue to expand, with an increasing focus on vertical use cases, particularly in emerging fields like agriculture, construction, mining, food, and lab and pharma. In addition, Sanjay will discuss the hurdles facing the autonomous vehicle industry and how M&A activity from incumbent OEMs will be a key indicator of success for vertical robotics.

Prior to joining F-Prime Capital, Aggarwal was CEO of Unicel Technologies, an India-focused mobile messaging company. Aggarwal scaled Unicel to become a leader in the Indian market and successfully exited the business to Karix Mobile.

Earlier in his career, Aggarwal worked at Devonshire Investors (the private equity group of Fidelity Investments), McKinsey and Company in their US and India offices, and at Berkeley Process Control (acquired by Moog Inc), where he built machine automation systems. Aggarwal holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley, and an M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

RoboBusiness is the leading event focused on developing commercial robots. There will be 60-plus speakers, 100-plus exhibitors and demos on the expo floor, networking receptions, the Pitchfire Robotics Startup Competition and more. You can check out the current list of speakers, to which more will be added.

RoboBusiness will be co-located with the Field Robotics Engineering Forum, an event focused on successfully developing robots that operate in wide-ranging, outdoor, dynamic environments.

Also co-located with RoboBusiness is DeviceTalks West, the premier industry event for medical technology professionals, currently in its ninth year. Both events attract engineering and business professionals from a broad range of healthcare and medical technology backgrounds.