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Kyle Vogt, then president and CTO of Cruise, delivered a Robotics Summit & Expo keynote in 2019. Supply: WTWH Media

Kyle Vogt, the co-founder and former CEO of autonomous automobile developer Cruise LLC, has launched a brand new startup: The Bot Firm. Vogt posted to LinkedIn that the corporate has already raised $150 million from buyers, however he didn’t give many particulars of its plans for service or family robots.

Paril Jain, chief expertise officer and former tech lead and AI supervisor at Tesla, is a co-founder of the firm. Luke Holoubek, an engineer at The Bot Firm, is former technical advisor to the CTO at Cruise. 

“So many issues compete for our time — commutes, longer working hours, and the complexities of contemporary life,” wrote Vogt. “Our group has spent years constructing robots (together with the self-driving variety) that give individuals a few of that point again, and we’re taking {that a} step additional with this firm.”

Nat Friedman, a California-based investor; Daniel Gross, an angel investor in companies like SpaceX, Stripe, and Instacart; and Nabeel Hyatt, a normal associate at Spark Capital, led the funding spherical. The spherical additionally included participation from Quiet Capital, Patrick Collison, John Collison, Elad Gil, Fifty Years, and extra.

Vogt brings startup expertise to new enterprise

Vogt began Cruise in 2013 with Dan Kan. Basic Motors acquired Cruise in 2016. In 2019, he was a keynote speaker on the Robotics Summit & Expo. In February 2022, Vogt took over as CEO.

In November 2023, Vogt left Cruise, saying his future plans embrace spending time with household and “exploring new concepts.”

Vogt’s resignation got here after a tough few weeks for Cruise. The firm’s troubles started on October 2, when a Cruise robotaxi dragged a lady after she was hit by a unique automobile pushed by a human. After being hit by the primary automobile, the girl was thrown into the trail of the Cruise automobile, which couldn’t brake in time to keep away from her.

On October 24, California’s Division of Motor Automobiles (DMV) suspended Cruise’s autonomous automobile deployment and driverless testing permits. The DMV stated it suspended the permits as a result of Cruise automobiles posed a threat to the general public based mostly on a string of current incidents and since the corporate “misrepresented” the security of its robotaxis.

Vogt’s expertise funding firms didn’t begin with Cruise, nevertheless. He was a co-founder of Justin.television, finally the mother or father firm of Twitch.television. In 2014, Amazon bought Twitch for $970 million.

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