Agility Robotics plans to go public via SPAC in a deal valued at $2.5 billion

Agility Robotics, a humanoid robotics startup that spun out of Oregon State University in 2015, plans to go public by merging with special purpose acquisition firm Churchill Capital Corp XI in a deal that values ​​the company at about $2.5 billion.

The deal is expected to generate proceeds of more than $620 million, including about $200 million from a group of new and existing institutional investors, the company said.

Agility is best known for Digit, a bipedal robot that is used across nine customer locations, including Schaeffler, GXO, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada and Mercado Libre.

The company has enjoyed backing from high-profile technology companies and funds such as Amazon, Nvidia, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and DCVC. It now plans to use the capital raised in the SPAC merger to increase next-generation Digit v5 production capacity, meet existing orders, and expand to new and existing customers.

The company said it has more than $300 million in multi-year orders for the new model and a pipeline of more than 30 potential customers to evaluate large-scale deployments.

“Humanoid robots are poised to become a critical driver of productivity, supply chain resilience and America’s technology leadership,” Peggy Johnson, CEO of Agility, said in a statement. “With commercially deployed humanoid robots already operating in customer environments today, Agility is helping organizations address labor shortages, improve efficiency and safely integrate AI-powered automation into their operations.”

The combined company is expected to trade under the ticker symbol AGLT on a yet-to-be-announced North American stock exchange.