Amazon makes second robotics acquisition this month with Fauna

Amazon has confirmed its acquisition of Fauna Robotics, a two-year-old startup. The transaction, which was first reported by Bloomberg, will see Fauna’s employees, including its two founders, relocate to join Amazon in New York City. The founders of the startup previously worked as engineers at Meta and Google before launching the robotics company. While the acquisition has been officially confirmed, the financial terms of the deal were not disclosed by either company.

Fauna Robotics specializes in developing kid-size humanoid robots designed for the home. Earlier this year, the startup began shipping its first product, a 59-pound bipedal robot called Sprout, to select research and development partners. This initial product shipment marks the startup’s first move to put its bipedal hardware into the hands of external research partners.

An Amazon spokesperson expressed excitement about the acquisition and the startup’s potential. “We are excited about Fauna’s vision to build capable, safe, and fun robots for everyone,” the spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement. The spokesperson further explained that the company plans to combine Fauna’s work with Amazon’s own robotics expertise. Additionally, the spokesperson highlighted Amazon’s decades of experience earning customer trust in the home through its retail and devices businesses, stating that the company looks forward to inventing new ways to make its customers’ lives better and easier.

This transaction represents Amazon’s second robotics acquisition this month—at least, that we know about. Earlier this month, Amazon confirmed to TechCrunch that it had also acquired Rivr, a Zurich-based autonomous robotics startup known for its stair-climbing delivery robot. Similar to the Fauna Robotics transaction, the financial terms for the Rivr acquisition were not disclosed by the companies.

Why it matters

Amazon is aggressively consolidating robotics talent and technology, signaling a continued push to integrate autonomous systems into the home environment.