Greetings from Berkeley, California, where we’ve just wrapped up our first-ever Climate-focused event. It was slightly surreal being back on stage at Zellerbach Hall, given the last time I stepped foot in the building was a very different time, way back in March 2020.

I’m writing to you from an extremely sunny sidewalk a few blocks from the University of California campus, where the event was held on Tuesday. I also had the opportunity to get a peek at a few projects from Pieter Abbeel’s lab at Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR).

We shot a handful of videos of exciting projects we’ll be showing you as part of next month's free, online robotics event. We also have plans to meet with researchers in Boston in a few weeks for some additional demos. I’m looking forward to checking those out and being back in Boston for the first time since the pandemic started.

A quick addition to the agenda: We just announced that we’ll have partners from DCVC, Playground Global and FoundersX together on a panel at the event. If you’ve ever been to a TechCrunch event, you know we always have at least one VC panel -- it is, after all, our bread and butter, as a site.

It has always been a highlight of the robotics event, but this year it carries even more weight than most. It’s been a turbulent couple of years since the last time we held the event -- but at least in the world of robotics investing, the movement has been mostly positive. There’s been a slight regression this year, but overall it’s been far less dramatic than we’ve seen with the larger startup.

Image Credits: TechCrunch

The past couple of years have been a tremendous accelerator for robotics and automation, and I’m excited to bring together DCVC partner Kelly Chen, Playground Global founding partner Bruce Leak and FoundersX founder/managing partner, Helen Liang. We’ve got lots to discuss, and I hope you’ll tune into the free event on July 21.

This past week brought us a handful of the aforementioned funding stories. At the top of my list is the simply named Collaborative Robotics, which launches with a $10 million raise, under the leadership of former Amazon Robotics VP Brad Porter. I spoke with the executive last week about his admittedly lofty goals of creating a versatile, all-purpose robot. Porter notes: