Bedrock Robotics

America needs to build like never before. Data centers to power the AI revolution, energy infrastructure, new housing units, and manufacturing facilities. But we can’t keep up. Construction projects that should take months stretch into years, while others sit stalled. The constraint? 500,000 open construction jobs that can’t be filled fast enough. We’re here to change that. Today, Bedrock Robotics is coming out of stealth with $80M from Eclipse and 8VC to bring advanced autonomy to the built world. Our Bedrock Operator transforms existing fleets of worksite equipment into fully autonomous machines, enabling builders to meet growing construction demands in the U.S. with greater quality, predictability, and safety. Founded by leaders that helped put the first driverless vehicles on public roads at Waymo, and joined by executives who helped scale companies like Uber Freight from zero to $5B in revenue, our early team has a powerful mix of technical know-how and operational expertise. And in only just over a year, it’s incredible we’ve accomplished so far. Bedrock is operating on test sites in AR, AZ, TX, and CA, with five forward-thinking partners, including  Sundt Construction, Zachry Construction Corporation,  Champion Site Prep, Inc., and Capitol Aggregates, Inc. And we’ve got so much more to build. Read more from our CEO Boris Sofman, on the company vision and where we’re headed: https://bit.ly/4kCAT2x Additional thanks to all our other investors, including:  Two Sigma Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, NVentures (NVIDIA's venture capital arm), Crossbeam Venture Partners,  The Raine Group, Tishman Speyer, Atreides Management, LP, AlRajhi Partners, and Samsara Ventures.

Steve LeVine spoke with Bedrock CEO Boris Sofman for his publication, The Electric, about our company's ambitious road ahead and mission to help relieve America's construction industry from stark labor shortages. Thanks, Steve, for putting a spotlight on the need for this technology, and our approach. Read more on The Information:

The United States has needed to upgrade its critical infrastructure for decades. We need a robust domestic manufacturing system that ensures we can build anything, any time, for any industry: A modern power grid, comprising multiple energy sources, that can fuel the next wave of digital transformation. Adequate, quality housing for a growing population, and critical infrastructure like roads and bridges built to withstand and adapt to inevitable change. Building this future requires real, tangible materials and raw physical strength — deployed at a scale impossible to achieve with the tools, supply chain, and human capital we have today.  Currently, the U.S. is facing a deficit of nearly 500,000 skilled laborers in construction alone, which is projected to grow as more than 40% of construction workers will reach retirement age over the next decade. If we hope to reinvent our most foundational industries, we must lean into physical AI to equip an ever-dwindling supply of workers with the tools to do more with less. Technology that combines robotics, software, and real-world actuation can be a powerful human amplifier — and become a true accelerator for industrial progress.  Introducing Bedrock Robotics, a company developing a generalizable autonomy platform for heavy machinery. Led by a team of co-founders who were instrumental in advancing autonomous vehicle technology into what it is today at companies like Waymo, Bedrock came out of stealth with $80M raised to date to accelerate industrial innovation. The company was founded in partnership with Eclipse Venture Equity and we’re excited to finally share more on the team’s mission to make machines more human in order to reshore critical physical industries in the U.S. like manufacturing, mining, and supply chain logistics. More on today’s news: https://bit.ly/4kFjt5m Congratulations Boris Sofman, Kevin Peterson, Tom Eliaz, Ajay Gummalla, and the entire Bedrock team!

Today, Bedrock Robotics is out of stealth. We’re proud to lead their $60M Series A, back the top team in construction autonomy, and support a renaissance in American development. Read on for the Bedrock-8VC story, as told by Alex Kolicich and Vivek Gopalan: https://lnkd.in/g6R2f7wk A flourishing civilization begins with breaking ground. New housing, commercial space, transportation infrastructure, data centers, ag—all begin with moving enormous volumes of dirt. Excavation requires 6-figure machinery and skilled operators, who are increasingly hard to find. Meanwhile, autonomy has barely made a dent in the $2T US construction industry…until now. Bedrock CEO Boris Sofman & CTO Kevin Peterson solved some of the hardest problems at Waymo. Now they’re tackling construction, where vehicles need to complete extremely complex motions without the guardrails of the road. At Waymo, they saw the promise of end-to-end learning to solve problems once considered too complex for engineered solutions. Combined with hardening of autonomy systems and affordable sensors, this is construction’s breakout moment. Bedrock combines a low-cost autonomy kit that retrofits OEM machinery into construction AVs, end-to-end learning for human-like navigation, and comprehensive workflow software. Their goal is no less than general-purpose construction autonomy at scale. Congratulations to Boris, Kevin, and friends, and here’s to a new golden age of building and prosperity. And don’t miss today’s Forbes exclusive on Bedrock, by Alan Ohnsman: https://lnkd.in/g_rSMp76

"Advances in AI and reinforcement learning have created incalculable opportunity in construction and other physical industries... These technologies will help realize the promise of more and better infrastructure and lower cost of goods, affecting millions and ultimately billions of lives. In this sense, Bedrock is an investment in a renaissance of American development.” Thanks to our investors Alex Kolicich and Vivek Gopalan at 8VC for this insightful piece on the need for Bedrock Robotics, the challenges, and the exciting road ahead: https://lnkd.in/g6R2f7wk

Did you hear? We’re hiring! At Bedrock, we've assembled one of the most experienced autonomous technology teams in the industry, with deep expertise scaling breakthroughs across transportation, robotics, and enterprise software. While others debate the future of AI, we're deploying it in the real world. Our systems are already installed on heavy machines across the country, learning on real construction sites and working to reshape the earth with survey-grade precision and exceptional safety. This isn't a simulation—it's autonomous intelligence working on billion-dollar infrastructure projects. If you're interested in applying cutting-edge technology to solve meaningful problems alongside a talented team, we'd love to have you join us: https://lnkd.in/gw-uXwye

"There is zero chance that the United States achieves its manufacturing, AI, and residential housing stock/cost goals, without radical productivity improvements — the kind you can only get through a truly revolutionary form of technology." Aidan Madigan-Curtis and Ryan Gibson at Eclipse saw the opportunity clearly when they decided to back our company. Their piece details the enormous challenges faced by the construction industry, and why the Bedrock Robotics team is uniquely positioned to turn a looming productivity crisis into a renaissance of human capacity: https://lnkd.in/gd3msqkn

Our CEO and Co-founder, Boris Sofman, had the opportunity to share Bedrock’s founding story and vision for the future of construction with Forbes’ Alan Ohnsman. To learn more about our $80M in funding led by Eclipse, why Sundt Construction chose to partner with us early on, and what’s next for our team, read the full story here: https://bit.ly/3GLP73j