Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that Amazon has completed its acquisition of the New York startup Fauna Robotics last week, making it the latest tech giant to enter the consumer-level humanoid robot market. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
An Amazon spokesperson said they are excited about Fauna's vision of "creating powerful, safe, and fun robots for everyone." The company plans to continue advancing Fauna's business and deploy the Sprout robot to external research and development partners. Approximately 50 employees of Fauna, including the founders, will join Amazon, and the company will continue to operate under the name "Fauna Robotics, an Amazon company."
Fauna Robotics' flagship product is the humanoid robot called Sprout. This robot is about 3.5 feet tall (about 1 meter or 42 inches / 107 centimeters) and weighs only 50 pounds (about 23 kilograms), designed to be lightweight, soft, and "approachable," suitable for use in social spaces such as homes and schools. It can walk, grasp objects, interact with people, and even dance, helping with daily household tasks like picking up toys and fetching food. Sprout is priced at $50,000, positioned as a friendly humanoid robot for consumers and businesses, while also being highly accessible to software developers.
