LG Electronics: Investment In Bear Robotics and Aggressive Plans to Expand in Global Robotics

• In this insight, we discuss LG Electronics (066570 KS) 's investment in Bear Robotics (US) and LG Electronics' aggressive ambitions to become a major player in the global robotics industry.

• LG Electronics announced that it invested a $60 million Series C funding round in Bear Robotics, a Silicon Valley based company that provides service robotics and artificial intelligence solutions.

• One of the key goals of LG Electronics is to expand into the global robotics software market, which is expected to grow to about 100 trillion won in eight years.

LG Electronics' Investment in Bear Robotics

In this insight, we discuss LG Electronics (066570 KS) 's investment in Bear Robotics (US) and LG Electronics' aggressive ambitions to become a major player in the global robotics industry. On 12 March, LG Electronics announced that it invested a $60 million Series C funding round in Bear Robotics, a Silicon Valley based company that provides service robotics and artificial intelligence solutions.

This round was exclusively led by LG Electronics. Through this investment, LG Electronics will become the largest shareholder of Bear Robotics, although the exact ownership stake of the company was not revealed. Founded in 2017, Bear Robotics manufactures self-driving indoor robots to assist employees on daily tasks that can ease their workload. Bear Robotics was founded by Jung-Woo Ha, who previously worked as a software engineer at Google.

The company's flagship Servi robots have been deployed in hospitality, healthcare, retail, logistics and multi-story real estate venues in North America, Europe, and Asia. This investment is likely to accelerate Bear Robotics's plans to expand into smart warehousing and supply chain automation, where the company is poised to unveil its next-generation robotics platform, featuring autonomous navigation systems and adaptive learning algorithms.

LG Electronics plans to build an open software platform in collaboration with Bear Robotics. For example, LG Electronics will provide software for robots on a subscription basis to Company A, which manufactures cargo delivery robots, and Company B, which specializes in serving robots, and will charge a monthly ‘subscription fee’. In the mid- to long-term, LG Electronics also aims to become a major player in the global robots OS software market.

Bear Robotics' Servi Plus Introduction (Source: Bear Robotics, Youtube)