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Although America has lagged behind Asia in design and production of manufacturing robots, it is now positioned to catch up and lead in a new global robotics race, according to research by investment bank Strategic Exits Partners The study analyzed the last five years of transactions including 300 exits, and 5000 investments into 3000 global companies.

Sales of industrial robots have reached a strong recovery: A new record of 486,800 units were shipped globally – an increase of 27% compared to the previous year. Asia/Australia saw the largest growth in demand: installations were up 33% reaching 354,500 units. The Americas increased by 27% with 49,400 units sold. Europe saw double digit growth of 15% with 78,000 units installed. These preliminary results for 2021 have been published by the International Federation of Robotics.

North American companies started the year by purchasing the most robots ever in a single quarter, with 11,595 robots sold at a value of $646 million. According to the Association for Advancing Automation, these Q1 numbers represent growth of 28% and 43% respectively over the first quarter of 2021 and 7% and 25% respectively over the previous best quarter, Q4 of 2021. Each industry segment experienced double-digit growth over the same quarter of 2021.

Universal Robots, the Danish producer of collaborative robots (cobots), has reported record Q1 revenue of USD 85m, 30% up on its 2021 Q1 revenue.

The United Robotics Group (URG), a subsidiary of the RAG-Stiftung in Essen, has reached an agreement with SoftBank Robotics Group Corp. (SBRG) to acquire their French subsidiary SoftBank Robotics Europe SAS (SBRE). SBRG will acquire a minority stake in URG and the two companies will continue to cooperate in the global marketing of various robots. By acquiring SBRE, URG will become one of the biggest service robotics companies in Europe.

The unique ecosystem of Danish robotics, centered around Odense on the island of Funen, is taking off, building on years of early successes that has caught the attention of international investors. Since 2015, the combined enterprise value of Danish robotics startups is up 3.7 times, reaching 1.1 billion euros in early 2022.

Last year over 100,000 mobile robots were shipped globally in 2021, Ash Sharma, Managing Director of Interact Analysis in a recent report. This is the first time this milestone has been reached, he says. The current labor shortage, coupled with strong e-commerce growth, has accelerated manufacturing and logistics companies’ plans to automate. This has caused sales in mobile robots to spiral, with nearly 70% more vehicles shipped than the year before and a 36% increase in revenues, which rose to nearly $3bn.

In a move to mitigate global risks to the US manufacturing sector, former assistant secretary of defense Hon. Andy Weber joins fast-growing global company group in robotics, Gain & Co and HowToRobot, as they set up office in the U.S.

“Denmark continues to rank amongst the world’s leading robot nations, delivering a strong 12% growth last year and even higher rates in segments such as collaborative and mobile robots. Global labour shortages at end users are fuelling demand for automated solutions and extending deployment of Danish robotic and drone technologies to new sectors such as logistics, retail, construction, healthcare and energy,” says Mikkel Christoffersen, CEO, Odense Robotics.

 SS&C Technologies Holdings today announced it has completed its acquisition of Blue Prism for approximately $1.6 billion (£1.25 billion). Blue Prism is a robotics process automation (RPA) company headquartered in the U.K., whose services are used by more than 2,000 businesses worldwide.