New favorite: for 2015, investments in the market of robotics increased by 50%

Source: Financial Times

The spread of robots in various fields of activity has made the market of robotics one of the most attractive for investors.

"A huge number of people, whether they want to or not, will come into direct contact with robots in the next couple of years," said Steve Jervetson, an investor, member of the boards of directors of such companies Tesla and SpaceX .
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According to the research company IDC , the annual cumulative market growth is approximately 17%, and by 2019 the market volume will be $ 135 billion.

Japan and China have recently been actively restructuring their technological processes to reflect the widespread use of robots. They account for 69% of all costs and investments in this area.

However, experts interviewed by the Financial Times admit that it is too early to consider this process as a global trend. Nevertheless, the growth rates of investments and some other indirect factors show that investors are ready to invest in the market. In 2015, investments in the robots market amounted to about $ 600 million, $ 400 million in 2014, and in 2011 they did not reach $ 200 million at all.

Experts pay attention to the growth of patent applications. According to the company IFI Claims , engaged in monitoring and research in all that relates to patents, over the past decade, the number of applications related to robots has tripled.

China leads the patent race - it accounts for 35% of applications submitted, which is twice as large as the next in second place in Japan. Another sign of the coming boom was the doubling of last year's venture capital investment to $ 587 million. This follows from data from CB Insights .



Previously, robots were expensive high-precision technological machines that performed some finite set of pre-programmed functions. Now we are talking about cheaper and easier adaptable (and adaptable) machines, starting with self-driving cars and UAVs and up to the so-called Kobot - robots, working alongside humans and performing “human functions”.

Robots have ceased to be something that relates exclusively to the sphere of production, and entered the service sector.