UC Berkeley’s robotics software developer Covariant hiked its overall funding to $147m in a round led by returning investor Index Ventures.
Covariant, a US-based robotics software developer spun out of University of California, Berkeley and artificial intelligence research company OpenAI, secured $80m in a series C round led by venture capital firm Index Ventures last week.
Amplify Partners, Radical Ventures, Temasek and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board also contributed to the round, which increased the company’s overall funding to $147m.
Founded in 2017, Covariant has developed artificial intelligence technology designed to help robotic devices interpret their surroundings be manipulated more effectively. The capital will go to research and development and international recruitment.
Index Ventures and Radical Ventures had previously co-led the company’s $40m series B round in May 2020, investing alongside Amplify Partners and undisclosed others.
Covariant had already raised $27m from consumer electronics company Samsung’s Q Fund, Amplify Partners, Lux Capital, SV Angel, FreeS, 11.2 Capital, A.Capital and angel investors Jeff Dean, Geoffrey Hinton, Yann LeCun and Raquel Urtasun across earlier rounds.
– A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.