FUJI and Motus Ventures Collaborating on Robotics and AI

FUJI Joins Motus Smart World Innovation Fund (SWIF) to focus on investments in robotics, AI, and autonomous technologies

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Motus Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm and business accelerator investing in deep technology businesses, announced today that FUJI Corporation (headquarters Chiryu, Japan), through its US subsidiary FUJI America Corporation, has joined the Motus SWIF fund as a limited partner investor. FUJI and Motus will work closely together to pursue investments in startups focusing on technologies directly relevant to autonomous mobile robots, as well as businesses focused on developing such robots, for a variety of applications.

FUJI has established an Innovation Lab in Silicon Valley, CA and is currently developing various automation solutions in fields such as logistics and heavy industry. Prior to joining the SWIF fund, FUJI and Motus co-invested in RIOS (www.rios.ai) – a Palo Alto based developer of highly advanced robotic systems – including fusion of vision and haptic sensing – used for automation of factory assembly lines. RIOS originated in 2018 from the Stanford Disruptive Technology and Digital Cities Program, where Motus is a member and commercialization advisor.

During the past 8 years, Motus has made investment across transportation, industrial robotics, semiconductor, mobile communications, smart cities, agriculture technology, logistics, commercial workspace management, security and surveillance, and related fields. Previous investments include Quanergy systems, a leading developer of optical phased array LiDAR and Metawave (a spin-out from PARC). In both of these companies, Motus was a founding investor, incubator and early board member.

“Motus is thrilled to collaborate with FUJI and our other limited partners to source, invest in, support, and help grow the leading startups in robotics, AI, autonomy, and related fields,” said Jim DiSanto, Managing Partner of Motus Ventures. “We look forward to a very bright future through our partnerships with world leading enterprises and institutions.”

Shinsuke Suhara, President and COO of FUJI commented about the partnership: “FUJI is looking forward to promoting our open innovation activity further through partnership with Motus Ventures. It is vital for our future that we stay at the forefront of technological development, and this investment offers us the chance to partner with some of the world’s most promising startups.”

About FUJI

FUJI Corporation is a global leader in robotics and automation for manufacturing of electronic devices and the automotive industry. FUJI Innovation Lab is the open innovation arm of FUJI Corporation, which has an office in Cupertino, CA. The firm seeks to identify investment and partnership opportunities that align with FUJI’s business, and is currently focused on early stage (Seed to Series-A) companies. For more information, visit https://www.fujiinnovation.com/

About Motus Ventures

Motus Ventures is a seed stage venture capital fund and business accelerator focusing on AI, Robotics and IoT across several of the world’s largest industries including transportation, telecommunications, commercial real estate, agriculture and industrial manufacturing. Motus provides value-added services to help launch new businesses which originate from: university researchers and scientists who have a new promising technology and desire to form a startup company, entrepreneurs in the field who need resources and money, and spin outs from established technology focused businesses. For more information, visit http://www.motusventures.com