Bedrock Robotics nears $1 billion in total funding as demand for autonomous heavy equipment surges

San Francisco-based Bedrock Robotics has raised $600 million in Series C funding, led by CapitalG and Emergence Capital, at a valuation of $4.1 billion. The round brings its total funding to nearly $1 billion as it envisions fully autonomous heavy equipment to address construction industry labor shortages nationwide.

The round included new investors US Innovative Technology Fund (USIT), Bessemer Venture Partners and Temasek, along with existing investors 8VC, Georgian, Valor Equity Partners, Xora, Eclipse, Perry Creek Capital, NVIDIA and others. Bedrock said this will accelerate the deployment of Bedrock-equipped machines on commercial construction sites across the United States, helping contractors use existing heavy equipment more safely, predictably and with greater capacity.

The new capital follows rapid business expansion beyond the company’s initial footprint in the West and Mid-South, Midwest and South Atlantic. Building on a major partnership with Southwest contractor Haydon to automate earthworks in Texas, Bedrock has added regional partners in Minnesota, Florida, Georgia, Missouri and Virginia, pushing its autonomous retrofits onto active job sites spanning data centers, healthcare facilities and heavy civil infrastructure.

“We have proven that fully autonomous excavators can perform real valuable work alongside the teams and workflows already in place on construction sites,” said Boris Sofman, co-founder and CEO of Bedrock Robotics. “The next challenge is to provide this capability to more contractors as a reliable part of how projects are delivered.”

“This funding allows us to expand deployments, strengthen field operations behind each machine, and work with more partners as they integrate intelligent systems into their daily work,” he added. “The opportunity is to help industry-savvy teams safely tackle more projects, deliver with greater consistency and quickly deliver more of the infrastructure this country needs.”

Sofman said The robot report“The demand for new customers is very high. We are growing responsibly towards demand, attracting new customers who we can serve together with our long-time engineering partners. We are expanding at every level, from operations to hardware to supply chain operations, to keep pace with the needs of our customers.”

Bedrock Robotics adds leadership

In an effort to secure new funding, the company also added two new people to the management team.

Amy Jones Satrom joins the leadership team as vice president of operations. He brings operational experience from Amazon, Nuro and Uber to guide the company into the next phase of scaling to meet demand.

“Amy is instrumental in strengthening our operations and building the systems and support that make successful implementations repeatable,” according to Sofman. “It’s still early in his tenure, but his leadership will be critical to growing our distribution and manufacturing teams and preparing them to support customers across the country.

“Ajay Gummalla, co-founder and vice president of engineering, is also closely involved on the hardware side, adding resilience to our supply chain so that we are ready to build the hardware we need to meet customer demand,” he explained.

Lando Juarez has joined Bedrock Robotics in the role of general counsel. He previously served as head of legal for Uber’s Autonomous Mobility & Delivery business, overseeing business partnerships and regulatory pathways.

Looking to the future of construction

When asked how the company plans to grow, Sofman responded: “In the short term, our growth market remains construction. It’s a huge market – 4% to 5% of US GDP – so we’re thinking about expanding use cases. Haydon will put our excavators to the test for autonomous work in the trenches.”

“We are also thinking about automating larger machine models – Haydon and others will explore bulldozers, ADTs and wheel loaders as possible heavy machines to automate next,” he said. “Long term: We are looking at other industries, such as mining and agriculture, which 1) also face labor constraints and 2) use the same types of heavy machinery as GCs.”

“For 2027, we are relentlessly focused on acquiring more Bedrock-equipped machines at more jobsites across the country,” Sofman continued. “Just a few months ago we launched fully autonomous excavators on commercial construction sites for the first time, just two years after Bedrock emerged from stealth. By 2027, we expect to double this progress to triple-digit machines working autonomously across the country.”

When asked about the installed base and economic opportunities for Bedrock Robotics systems, Sofman was more reserved.

“It’s a little early to provide concrete numbers,” Sofman said, “However, given labor constraints for general contractors, the math is clear: Imagine a job that can be completed two months faster because autonomous machines run 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

“The developer who paid 9% interest on a $400 million loan would save $6 million on that project that he could invest in future projects,” he noted. “In turn, construction crews and all downstream industries, such as plumbing and electrical, would see an increasing volume of stable work because there are more projects that can be funded.”

Some data on the work constraints that opened the market for Bedrock:

• Twenty percent of construction workers are over the age of 55, and estimates suggest that more than 40 percent of construction workers will retire in the next five years.

• Large projects are already on average 20% over budget and 80% over budget.

• In the construction industry specifically, 87% of companies report openings for hourly positions and 88% say the roles are equally or more difficult to fill than they were a year ago.