LG SECURES MAJORITY STAKE IN BEAR ROBOTICS

LG SECURES MAJORITY STAKE IN BEAR ROBOTICS

 

Company Makes Proactive Investment in Preparation for a Certain Future

 

SEOUL, South Korea, Jan. 24, 2025 — LG Electronics (LG) has taken a significant step in advancing its service robotics capabilities by securing a majority stake in Bear Robotics, a prominent Silicon Valley-based startup specializing in AI-driven autonomous service robots. This move is part of LG’s strategy to enhance its presence in the robotics sector, a key new business area for the company.

 

On Jan. 22, LG’s board of directors decided to exercise a call option to acquire an additional 30 percent stake in Bear Robotics. This follows a previous investment in March 2024, where LG invested $60 million to acquire a 21 percent stake in Bear Robotics and signed a call option agreement allowing LG to acquire up to an additional 30 percent stake. Upon completion of the call option exercise, LG will hold 51 percent of Bear Robotics’ shares, securing management control.

 

As part of this strategic move, LG’s commercial robot business, primarily centered around “LG CLOi Robots,” will be transferred to Bear Robotics. The key management team of Bear Robotics, including CEO John Ha, will remain in place to ensure stable business continuity and will continue to focus on creating synergies based on the LG commercial robot business.

 

Founded in 2017, Bear Robotics has gained recognition for its AI-powered indoor delivery robots, catering to markets in the United States, South Korea and Japan. The company is noted for its expertise in platformizing service robotics software, robot fleet management technology and cloud-based control solutions.

 

With this additional investment, LG aims to strengthen its commercial robot business, particularly service robots for hotels and restaurants, while also advancing its industrial robots used in production processes and home robots that assist with daily life.

 

LG CEO William Cho, speaking this month at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, emphasized the importance of this investment, stating, “Robots are a certain future,” and hinted at plans to expand beyond the current focus on food & beverage and logistics delivery robots to include the Self-driving AI Home Hub and other home robots.

 

This investment is expected to drive continuous technological innovation at Bear Robotics. LG’s extensive experience in B2C and B2B appliance businesses, combined with Bear Robotics’ leading technology, aims to create synergies that will enhance the competitiveness of LG’s commercial robot business. The integration of supply chains and service operations following the business transfer is also expected to strengthen the business.

 

As the robotics industry shifts towards software-centric robots, the collaboration with Bear Robotics is set to enhance software capabilities for LG’s overall robotics business. In fact, LG aims to build an integrated software platform for commercial, industrial and home robots based on Bear Robotics’ software, providing consistent and high-quality solution experience to various customers.

 

LG also plans to advance its home and industrial robots business by leveraging its AI capabilities. The home robots, designed to assist with daily life, will be managed by the LG Home Appliance Solution Company, renowned for its world-class home appliance technology. A key example is the Self-driving AI Home Hub (project name: Q9), scheduled for release within the year.

 

The Q9 integrates multimodal sensing – including voice, sound and image recognition – with autonomous driving technology to freely move around the house and accurately recognize users’ status, thereby seamlessly connecting and controlling home appliances and IoT devices. It can also navigate obstacles like carpets and floors and is capable of expressing rich emotions through its display.

 

The Q9 is equipped with Microsoft’s voice recognition and synthesis technology to facilitate more natural conversations with consumers. Its excellent communication skills, which can understand various accents, pronunciations and colloquial expressions, drew the attention of CES 2025 attendees. To accelerate the creation of an open ecosystem, LG has launched a Q9 software development kit.

 

In the industrial robot sector, LG will continue to collaborate with specialized companies; Robostar offers a range of industrial robots used in electronics and automotive production, while Robotis excels in actuators, key components for robot joints. LG plans to invest in these companies and pursue technological cooperation to further develop its Smart Factory solutions business, aiming to grow it into a trillion-won business by 2030.

 

“This additional investment demonstrates our commitment to firmly establishing robots as a new growth engine of the company,” said LG Chief Strategy Officer Sam-soo Lee. “We will continue to innovate in all areas of robotics, including commercial, industrial and home robots.”

 

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About LG Electronics, Inc.

LG Electronics is a global innovator in technology and consumer electronics with a presence in almost every country and an international workforce of more than 74,000. LG’s four Companies – Home Appliance Solution, Media Entertainment Solution, Vehicle Solution and the Eco Solution – combined for global revenue of over KRW 88 trillion in 2024. LG is a leading manufacturer of consumer and commercial products ranging from TVs, home appliances, air solutions, monitors, automotive components and solutions, and its premium LG SIGNATURE and intelligent LG ThinQ brands are familiar names world over. Visit www.LGnewsroom.com for the latest news.

 

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About LG Electronics USA

LG Electronics USA Inc., based in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., is the North American subsidiary of LG Electronics Inc., a leading smart life solutions company with annual global revenues of more than $60 billion. In the United States, LG sells a wide range of innovative home appliances, home entertainment products, commercial displays, air conditioning systems and vehicle components. LG is an 11-time ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year. www.LG.com.

 

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