LG Electronics secures control of Bear Robotics

LG Electronics Inc. has secured control of Bear Robotics Inc., a service robot developer, by raising its stake to 51% from 21% as it aims to expand its robotics business across commercial, industrial and home services.

The South Korean home appliance maker on Wednesday agreed at a board meeting to buy an additional 30% stake in the autonomous driving robot developer through a call option attached to its $60 million investment in the startup last year.

Its investment amount for the additional stake purchase was not disclosed.

Founded in 2017, Bear Robotics produces serving robots: Servi, which delivers meals at restaurants; and Carti for use at warehouses.

It also develops autonomous robotics software in addition to robot fleet management and cloud-based content solutions.

“As the paradigm in the robotics industry shifts toward software, LG Electronics has gained momentum to enhance its robotics software capabilities,” said a company official.

“LG’s manufacturing capabilities and supply chain management expertise will improve the competitiveness (of Bear Robotics),” he added.

LG will integrate its robotics business focused on the serving robot CLOi with that of Bear Robotics.

Its control over Bear Robotics comes about a month after Samsung Electronics Co. raised its stake in Rainbow Robotics Co. to 35% to become the largest shareholder in the Korean collaborative robot maker.

Write to Jeong-Soo Hwang at hjs@hankyung.com
 

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.