Bedrock Robotics raises $600M at $4.1B valuation for self-driving excavators

The round was co-led by CapitalG and Emergence Capital. It comes two months after Bedrock moved its autonomous excavators beyond testing and pilot programs and put them to work on active construction sites.

Bedrock has developed a self-driving kit that can be retrofitted onto construction and other worksite vehicles. Excavators equipped with its autonomous-driving technology are now operating commercially at a Nevada-based water treatment facility, an earthwork site run by Champion Site Prep in Texas, and a 1.2 million-cubic-yard civil sitework project with Zachry Construction Corporation.

Bedrock was founded by a group of autonomous vehicle and robotics industry veterans. Co-founder and CEO Boris Sofman previously led Waymo’s now-shuttered self-driving trucks program. Sofman also co-founded and led Anki Robotics, the maker of the Cozmo consumer robot, which shut down in 2019. Other co-founders include Waymo veterans Kevin Peterson, Bedrock’s chief technology officer, and Ajay Gummalla, its vice president of engineering. Tom Eliaz, who previously worked at Segment and Twilio, is also a co-founder and vice president of engineering.

The fresh capital will help Bedrock accelerate its transition to commercial work. The company plans to deploy its technology at more construction sites and expand the teams and infrastructure needed to support customers in the field.

“We have proven that fully autonomous excavators can perform real work of value alongside the crews and workflows already in place on job sites. The next challenge is delivering that capability to more contractors as a dependable part of how projects get built,” Sofman said in a statement.

Bedrock is particularly focused on autonomous excavators, in part because of a growing shortage of skilled operators. It takes five years or more to master operating an excavator, according to Bedrock. The Associated Builders and Contractors, a national construction industry trade association, estimates that more than 40% of construction workers will retire in the next five years. Bedrock is betting that the industry will increasingly turn to autonomous driving technology to help close that labor gap.

The startup’s newest partner is Haydon, an Arizona-based general contractor that plans to use Bedrock-equipped machines across a range of projects, including advanced manufacturing facilities, water and wastewater facilities, data centers and healthcare facilities.

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

Bedrock also announced two executive hires as it scales commercial operations. Amy Jones Satrom, a veteran of Amazon, Nuro and Uber, has joined Bedrock as vice president of operations. Lando Juarez, formerly head of legal for Uber’s autonomous mobility and delivery business, was hired as general counsel.

Editor's Summary

Bedrock Robotics has raised $600 million at a $4.1 billion valuation and has begun commercial deployment of retrofit self-driving kits on excavators at active construction sites. The company plans to use the capital to expand deployments and field support, citing a shortage of skilled operators. It also named new executives and a contractor partner.