Funding the next wave of robotics

The Robot Report Podcast

It’s VC week at the podcast. TLDR: This episode features interviews with Juliette Chevallier from Scale Ventures and Jasmine Singh from Jay Moon Ventures and covers investment trends in robotics, emphasizing the importance of execution risk over technical risk. Juliette Chevallier, Principal, Investments, Scale Venture Partners Juliette Chevallier has a background in autonomous vehicles and robotics, having previously worked at companies like Google Chauffeur (now Waymo) and MIT spinoff Optimus Ride. She joined Scale Venture Partners about 2 years ago to lead their investment thesis on robotics, AI applications, and cybersecurity. Scale Venture Partners' approach focuses on investing at the point of execution risk rather than technical risk, looking for companies with a working product and proven product-market fit. Juliette emphasizes the importance of understanding the customer ROI and business model as key criteria. In her role as a VC, Juliette prefers to have a deep, hands-on involvement with portfolio companies, acting as a strategic sounding board and collaborating closely with founders to work through tough problems. She sees her role as helping founders navigate the operational and go-to-market challenges. Juliette notes a renewed interest in robotics from VCs, though she is cautious about some "wild" valuations and funding rounds, preferring bottoms-up market analysis over top-down figures. Juliette is bullish on the potential of robotics foundation models (RFMs) to drive transformation, emphasizing the need for more multi-modal AI models that integrate vision, action, and communication. She is excited about the possibilities of AI to enhance robotics, but cautions about the risks of AI development burning through funding. Overall, Juliette's approach focuses on de-risking execution and operational challenges for robotics startups, leveraging her deep technical and business expertise to support founders. Learn more at: https://www.scalevp.com/ Jasmeet Singh, founder, JMOON Ventures Jasmeet Singh has a diverse background spanning robotics engineering, founding startups, and investing since 2012. As an investor at J Moon Ventures, he focuses on "physical AI" startups - those combining hardware, electronics, and AI in areas like robotics, IoT, and 3D printing. Jasmeet emphasizes the importance of solving real problems, not just building cool technology. He looks for startups with a strong understanding of the user and business model, noting operational challenges like scaling manufacturing and finding the right business model. Compared to the more risk-averse Canadian market, Jasmeet sees the US as a better environment for robotics fundraising. He advises founders to target large, underserved problems and focus on customer service and support. Some of Jasmeet's investments include Orange Wood Labs, Brisk AI, and Rural Hologram. As he launches J Moon Ventures, he is particularly interested in opportunities in agriculture, construction, medical, and sustainability. Overall, Jasmeet brings a unique perspective as an investor with deep technical expertise and operational experience in robotics. He is focused on backing founders solving real-world problems with innovative hardware-software solutions. Learn more at: https://jmoon.ventures/ – SPONSOR – The show this week is sponsored by FlexQube. Move material with any size, shape, and weight with the FlexQube Navigator AMR, the world’s first multi-purpose and non-load carrying robot.The FlexQube Navigator AMR features a standardized coupling interface to connect with an ecosystem of different load carriers depending on the customer's needs.The system also features a safety-rated identification of load carrier footprint to secure a safe and efficient scale-up of different use cases in a factory or warehouse. FlexQube Navigator – robotics that delivers! To learn more about FlexQube’s solutions goto: https://www.flexqube.com