❯ Robotics software company FieldAI signs a term sheet for $700 million, lifting its valuation to $10 billion

Robots that need no mapFieldAI was founded in Irvine, California, in 2023 and makes only software, not robots. According to SiliconANGLE, its models let robots operate in places with no pre-built map, no GPS and no internet connection, and adjust their behavior to risk, for example slowing down when lighting fails. It also builds digital twins of sites from camera and lidar data.

Customers on building sites and in power plantsIts customers are in construction, energy and the public sector. In March it partnered with Boston Dynamics so that the Spot robot dog could use its software for industrial equipment inspection. According to TechCrunch last August, it had then disclosed $405 million in total funding from investors including Bezos Expeditions, Temasek, Khosla Ventures and Intel Capital.

Term sheet signed, not closedBusiness Insider reported on October 2 that FieldAI is raising $700 million at a $10 billion valuation, five times its valuation last August. What has been signed is a nonbinding term sheet. Existing backers are expected to take part and new investors were not disclosed. Revenue and signed contracts together exceed $135 million across more than 30 customers, up from $100 million in June.

Software valued above whole robotsThe Next Web compares it with fellow robotics software companies Physical Intelligence, valued at about $11 billion, and Skild AI, at about $14 billion, while Europe’s largest robotics rounds this year all went to hardware, the biggest being NEURA at about $7 billion. Robot makers therefore face a choice: pay to build the brain themselves, or buy it from these software companies and give up part of the margin.

▪ SIGNALA company that builds no robots is worth more than companies that do, because capital is betting bodies will converge and software that works across bodies is the scarce part.