Amazon Targets Consumer Robotics Market With Fauna Acquisition

Amazon has acquired Fauna Robotics, a firm that designs and assembles humanoid robots that can be used around people and are likely to be marketed to consumers.

The acquisition was announced in posts on LinkedIn by Fauna Robotics Co-founder and CEO Rob Cochran and Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Josh Merel.

“When we launched in NYC back in February 2024, we set out with a clear mission: to ‘build capable, safe and fun robots for everyone,’” Cochran said in his post. “Looking back at how far we’ve come in just two years, I am immensely proud of everything our team has accomplished.”

Fauna Robotics is still selling and supporting its Sprout Creator Edition robots, Cochran said. Going forward, the company will be known as “Fauna Robotics, an Amazon company,” and it is actively hiring, he added.

Merel said in his post: “Looking forward to accelerating Fauna’s vision and continuing to build with our incredible team, now in our next phase with Amazon.”

Bloomberg reported on the acquisition Tuesday (March 24), saying that Cochran, Merel and Fauna’s roughly 50 employees will join Amazon, that Fauna will join Amazon’s Personal Robotics Group, and that the firm will continue offering Sprout to outside researchers.

Sprout is 42 inches tall, which is smaller than rival humanoid robots, and is expected to be used in homes and offices for tasks such as picking up toys and fetching food, according to the report.

An Amazon spokesperson told Bloomberg that the company is “excited about Fauna’s vision to build capable, safe and fun robots for everyone.”

“Together with Amazon’s robotics expertise and decades of experience earning customer trust in the home through our retail and devices businesses, we’re looking forward to inventing new ways to make our customers’ lives better and easier,” the spokesperson said, per the report.

This report came about a week after Amazon acquired RIVR, a company based in Switzerland and formerly known as Swiss-Mile that uses physical artificial intelligence and wheeled-legged robots to automate doorstep delivery.

An Amazon spokesperson told CNBC at the time that the acquisition of RIVR “reflects our commitment to a continued investment in research” and efforts to improve safety for the company’s delivery personnel.