Standard Bots raised a $200 million Series C at a $1 billion valuation for a $37,000 robot arm that a line worker can train by demonstration, putting factory automation within reach of manufacturers that legacy robot pricing has kept out.
The tool: The six-axis RO1 lists at $37,000 and handles an 18 kg payload at ±0.025 mm repeatability.
Instead of paying an integrator to program it, a worker walks the arm through a task and it copies the motion. Standard Bots says that runs about 30% below legacy makers; its price guide puts Universal Robots at $30,000 to $60,000-plus.
Named customers include Sunoco, Lockheed Martin, NASA, and the US Army.
The round: RoboStrategy, a robotics fund that listed on Nasdaq in May, led the round, joined by General Catalyst, Amazon's Alexa Fund, and Samsung Next. The money expands the company's Glen Cove, New York plant to roughly 70,000 square feet, toward a goal of full "metal in to robots out" US production by 2027.
It is a bet on American-made robots at a moment when Congress is weighing bills to ban Chinese-made ones.
What's next: Full US production is promised for 2027, the window in which Standard Bots has to prove a $37,000 arm can take share from incumbents like Fanuc, ABB, and Universal Robots.
