Silicon Valley manufacturing firm proves there’s tons of money for heavy machinery
Even despite a merger deal flop, Bright Machines pockets $132 million
Bright Machines, the Bay Area-based manufacturing startup that aims to eliminate manual labor from manufacturing electronic devices by combining robots and new software, has recently concluded its Series B funding with $132 million.
It consisted of $100 million equity and $32 million in debt. The round was led by founder Lior Susan’s own Eclipse Ventures and in debt co-led by Silicon Valley Bank and Hercules Capital. Before the Series B fundraising round, Bright Machines attempted to ride the SPAC wave by entering into a merger that would value Bright Machines at $1.6 billion. Unfortunately, the deal fell through just a month before the signing, as the overall SPAC craze calmed down.
The hefty investment comes against a general increase in confidence in domestic US manufacturing. This sentiment is largely led by Federal economic incentive bills like the CHIPS act that aim to boost domestic manufacturing.
One of the clearest examples is Intel that has been attempting to solve supply side bottlenecks by investing billions in to help diversify geographic semiconductor production. Bright Machines is the embodiment of this sort of thinking as the company attempts to position itself as an aggregation of “micro factories” — software-driven production lines that rely on robotics and automation.
