Bright Machines bags $126 million Series C one month after closing Israeli R&D center
Bright Machines bags $126 million Series C one month after closing Israeli R&D center
The company, headed by Israeli CEO and founder, Lior Susan, laid off 60 of 68 employees in Israel, with the rest relocating to San Francisco
Bright Machines, headed by Israeli CEO and founder, Lior Susan, announced it has raised $126 million in Series C funding. The round includes $106 million in equity led by investment from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock and participation from NVIDIA, Microsoft, Eclipse, Jabil and Shinhan Securities, and $20 million in venture debt from J.P. Morgan. This brings the company's total amount raised to more than $400 million.
The announcement came one month after the company said it was closing its Israeli R&D center, which had employed 68 people. Around 60 staff members were laid off, with the rest moving to the company's offices in San Francisco.
Prior to the layoffs, Bright Machines employed a total of around 200 people in Israel, U.S., and Mexico.
Susan told Calcalist at the time that "after six years, we made the difficult decision to close the development center in Israel. The purpose of this move is to improve our efficiency and speed as a company. As a robotics company, our customers are overseas, and this relocation will allow us to develop closer to our customers. This strategic change will enable Bright Machines to continue being innovative and to realize our vision of transforming the manufacturing world."
Susan’s words were of little consolation for the Israeli team and that has now been compounded by the news of the company’s new funding round.
Bright Machines was established in May 2018 and is engaged in the development of software-based autonomous production lines for industry. After the previous round of layoffs in 2022, 120 employees remained at the company's headquarters in Israel, but their number has gradually decreased. Susan is also one of the founders of Eclipse Ventures, which previously invested in Bright Machines and recently recorded an impressive success with the IPO of Cerebras Systems.
Bright Machines employed as many as 500 people in 2021 and was planning to go public via a SPAC merger at a $1.6 billion valuation that year before the deal fell through due to market conditions.
