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Heartland Robotics Inc., the company founded by MIT robotics expert and iRobot corp. co-founder Rodney Brooks, has landed $20 million in its latest round of funding.
Backers in the Series B round include new investors Sigma Partners and Highland Capital Partners, along with existing investors Charles River Ventures and Bezos Expeditions. Paul Maeder from Highland will be joining the Heartland board in conjunction with the new funding.
Heartland is developing a new form of manufacturing robots, and in the release about the funding, Brooks said the company’s robots will be “intelligent and highly flexible” and “unbelievably inexpensive.”
Added on to the $12 million that Cambridge-based Heartland received in 2009, the company has taken in a total of $32 million in venture backing since it was founded in 2008.
In June, Heartland tapped Scott Eckert, co-founder and former CEO of Motion Computing Inc., as its new president and CEO, replacing outgoing president Patrick Sobalvarro.
Also in June, Brooks announced he was stepping down from MIT to take on a full-time role at Heartland. Brooks, who was was named a Mass High Tech All Star in 2009, had served as the former director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT.