This startup’s self-driving excavators help dig up $600M in new funding

Bedrock Robotics has raised $600 cardinal successful a backing circular that values the autonomous conveyance exertion startup astatine $4.1 billion, marking a speedy ascent for the two-year-old company.

The Series C round, co-led by CapitalG and Emergence Capital, comes 2 months aft the startup reached a cardinal milestone: moving its autonomous excavators beyond investigating and aviator programs and putting them to enactment connected progressive operation sites.

Bedrock Robotics has developed a self-driving kit that tin beryllium retrofitted onto operation and different worksite vehicles. Excavators outfitted with Bedrock’s autonomous-driving tech are present commercially operating astatine a Nevada-based h2o attraction facility, an earthwork tract tally by Champion Site Prep successful Texas_, and a 1.2 million-cubic-yard civilian sitework task with Zachry Construction Corporation.

Bedrock has raised astir $1 cardinal since it was founded successful 2024 by a radical of autonomous conveyance and robotics manufacture veterans. Co-founder and CEO Boris Sofman antecedently led Waymo’s now-shuttered self-driving trucks program. Sofman besides co-founded and led Anki Robotics, the shaper of the fashionable Cozmo user robot, which unopen down successful 2019.

Other co-founders see Waymo veterans Kevin Peterson, Bedrock’s main exertion officer, and Ajay Gummalla, who serves arsenic Bedrock’s vice president of engineering. Tom Eliaz, who antecedently worked astatine Segment and Twilio, is besides a co-founder and VP of engineering.

The caller superior volition assistance Bedrock accelerate its modulation to commercialized work. The institution plans to deploy its exertion astatine much operation sites, portion expanding the teams and infrastructure needed to enactment customers successful the field.

“We person proven that afloat autonomous excavators tin execute existent enactment of worth alongside the crews and workflows already successful spot connected occupation sites. The adjacent situation is delivering that capableness to much contractors arsenic a dependable portion of however projects get built,” Sofman said successful a statement.

Bedrock is peculiarly focused connected autonomous excavators, successful portion due to the fact that of a increasing shortage of skilled operators. It takes 5 years oregon much to maestro operating an excavator, according to Bedrock. Meanwhile, a increasing fig of operation workers are approaching status age. The Associated Builders and Contractors, a nationalist operation manufacture commercialized association, estimates that much than 40% of operation workers volition discontinue successful the adjacent 5 years.

Bedrock is betting that the manufacture volition progressively crook to autonomous driving tech to assistance adjacent that labour gap.

The startup’s newest spouse is Haydon, an Arizona-based wide contractor that plans to usage Bedrock-equipped machines crossed a scope of projects, including precocious manufacturing facilities, h2o and wastewater, information centers, and healthcare facilities.

New investors US Innovative Technology Fund (USIT), Bessemer Venture Partners, and Temasek participated successful the round, alongside existing investors 8VC, Georgian, Valor Equity Partners, Xora, Eclipse, Perry Creek Capital, and Nvidia.

The startup besides announced 2 enforcement hires arsenic it scales commercialized operations. Amy Jones Satrom, a seasoned of Amazon, Nuro, and Uber, has joined Bedroc arsenic its vice president of operations. Lando Juarez, formerly caput of ineligible for Uber’s autonomous mobility and transportation business, was hired arsenic wide counsel.