Robotics has become one of the most talked-about investment themes, but where does the real opportunity lie?<br>In this episode, Brian Adams is joined by Jeff Burnstein, President of the Association for Advancing Automation; Collin Groves, Partner at BD Ventures; and Collin Sebastian, CEO of En Verite AI and former CTO of SoftBank Robotics, for a discussion on the current state of robotics investing.<br>They explore the realities of adoption, the impact of AI on robotics, where venture capital and family offices are deploying capital today, and the biggest challenges facing the industry—from systems integration and manufacturing to policy and talent.<br>To learn more about Mack International, please visit www.mackinternational.com

The Next Wave of Robotics Investing

The Mack Podcast

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** The Mack Podcast

## Participants

- **Brian Adams** (Mack International)
- **Jeff Bernstein** (Association for Advancing Automation)
- **Colin Gross** (BD Ventures)
- **Colin Sebastian** (Omverete AI)

## Transcript

Welcome back to the Mack Podcast and thank you all for joining us for what should be a very interesting panel discussion on investing in the robotics space. I've got some really great panelists with me today. So let's do quick introductions then we'll jump right into it. Let's start with Jeff and then we'll go with Colin G. and then Colin S.

Okay great. I'm Jeff Bernstein. I'm the president of the Association for Advancing Automation, a trade group based in Ann Arbor, Michigan that has 1,450 member companies from 35 different countries. And our goal is to promote the use of robotics and AI and machine vision and motion control and all these technologies that are transforming the world.

Great. I'm Colin Gross, partner at B2B Ventures. We're a venture capital firm investing in seed to series B companies traditionally focused in the B2B landscape. Industry agnostic robotics happens to be a division that we are going much deeper on recently. Funding has taken off and so excited to be talking a little bit more about it today.

Hi and my name is Colin Sebastian. I currently am the CEO of a company called Omverete AI that helps family offices break away from the megafund fee machines and invest directly in the VC asset class. I'm also the former chief technology officer for SoftBank Robotics. Thank you all. So let's start where we ended with Colin and we will rotate around the room. Maybe give us a reality check. I mean this is one of those things that you know we hear a lot about.

You know I hear things, I read things, but where is adoption in reality in terms of the current state and versus aspirational? And what's really changed in the last three to five years to give us a sense of the state of play of the industry and the investment landscape?

So personally what I have seen as a robotics investor, what gives me hope is the conversation shift from the traditional single purpose CapEx model to more of a conversation around physical AI and how that could potentially come to market. I'll be honest with you, I think a lot of the positivity that I've been hearing in the market around robotics seems a little overly optimistic.

You know I still look at Fortune 5 and how quickly or how slowly they're adopting, you know even operationally just the ability to buy on a recurring basis and a subscription model versus just put everything in the CapEx portion of their budget. I don't think they've really changed the methodology of how they acquire that kind of hardware. You know Jeff, Colin and I were having before you joined on the call just a conversation about like what exactly is a humanoid robot for?

And why would I pay $25,000, $30,000 to have one in my home? I'm not exactly sure. Where I'm seeing the best ...

The Next Wave of Robotics Investing

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.

The Next Wave of Robotics Investing

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.