SoftBank Invests in Robotics Company Behind NYC Covid Testing
- $200 million funding boosts Opentrons’ value to $1.8 billion
- Startup uses pool testing to speed the process, lower costs
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SoftBank Group Corp. is leading a $200 million investment in a robotics startup that helped spur New York City’s Covid testing process, boosting the company’s value to $1.8 billion.
Opentrons Labworks Inc. was founded in Brooklyn in 2013 and was valued at $90 million only a year ago. Last summer, the company was instrumental in helping set up New York’s Pandemic Response Lab to alleviate massive testing delays in the city. Opentrons’s robots speed up the process by saving humans from having to carry out repetitive tasks themselves, helping to allow the city to test as many as 45,000 swabs a day now.