附近上门

For decades, startups and the venture capital industry have touted themselves as engines of job creation.

Sure, they鈥檝e ushered in technologies that decimated scores of jobs and occupational categories from newspaper deliverers and taxi operators to travel agents to telephone operators.聽聽

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But, the argument goes, startups have also pioneered whole new careers that didn鈥檛 exist decades ago. This includes titles like social media marketer, robotic process automation engineer, driver, host, shopper 鈥β� and the list goes on.

Now, in a job market beset with labor shortages, it seems the gig economy startup boom may have created demand for services far exceeding the supply of workers. If so, we can expect that going forward, startups working to automate repetitive, risky or unrewarding tasks will be getting a greater share of buzz in venture circles.聽

鈥淐ertainly today we see areas of work where there aren鈥檛 enough people to do that work,鈥� said , founder and general partner at a deep-tech focused venture firm that is backing startups looking to bring automation to areas including cancer therapy, farming and e-commerce fulfilment.聽

More money to mechanize jobs

Those are a few of many industries targeted by automation-oriented entrepreneurs. In fields from construction to transport to homecare to food service, employers are struggling to fill open positions at prevailing wages.聽

Startups and growth-stage companies are increasingly securing funding to do these jobs. A survey of seed-stage funding rounds in 附近上门 for 2021 showed labor-saving robotics as an increasingly popular investment theme. A featured companies such as , a developer of autonomous tractors; , maker of bots for package handling and logistics; and , which is bringing robotics to restaurant kitchens.

Of course the popular mental image of automation 鈥� a metal man doing someone鈥檚 job 鈥� isn鈥檛 an accurate depiction of how things actually work, Barrett notes. In the real world, automation may be purely software or a mix of hardware and software. And the notion of taking a job isn鈥檛 quite right either. Usually it鈥檚 more about reducing or altering the human tasks required to do the job.

That鈥檚 the concept behind one of the biggest venture-backed exits of 2021, the IPO of robotic process automation (RPA) provider . The company, recently valued at around $38 billion, touts its mission on its homepage: 鈥淲e make software robots, so people don鈥檛 have to be robots.鈥� In other words, it looks for ways to get software to do the boring and repetitive aspects of desk jobs.

UiPath is one of several RPA companies to raise massive funding, with the sector seeing brisk investment and dealmaking of late. Two tech behemoths 鈥� and 鈥� have made acquisitions in the space this year, respectively snapping up German startup and India-based . Meanwhile, UiPath鈥檚 best known venture-backed rival, , is reportedly for a potential IPO filing of its own.

RPA software allows companies to automate aspects of invoicing, data entry and even customer service and marketing. Purveyors of the technology generally pitch it as a way not to eliminate jobs but to free up time for employees to focus on higher-value activities. However, some observers of the space see a good will reduce the ranks of white-collar jobs over time.聽

Industry and agriculture

Startups are also targeting industrial jobs. , a developer of聽 autonomous welding robots, just raised $56 million in Series B funding to scale a technology founders and investors say could help relieve an expected severe labor shortage among American welders. Without some solution, such as automation, the company says the shortage could lead to 鈥渁 choke point for American manufacturing across industries.鈥�

The list of other industries automation-oriented startups are targeting is lengthy, covering agriculture, shipping, warehouses, and pretty much anywhere there鈥檚 a repetitive job to be done.

Of course, there are plenty of jobs robots can鈥檛 do. For instance, when visiting California lettuce farms as part of diligence for autonomous tractor portfolio company Farmwise, Barret said he was struck by the skills involved in picking lettuce.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a highly skilled, multisensory talent … It has to look right, smell right, sound right,鈥� he said. 鈥淣o one knows how to make a robot that can do that.鈥�

Restaurant workers increasingly made of metal

Meanwhile, on the hourly wage front, actual metal machines are coming to do jobs in a number of categories.

鈥淔or restaurants, we think intelligent automation is going to transform the industry,鈥� said venture capitalist and startup entrepreneur , founder of , which is incubating and developing several labor-reducing technologies in the food-prep space. His portfolio includes , maker of a burger-flipping robot, as well as machines that will make precise boba milk tea and artisanal pizza.

On the food front, it鈥檚 noteworthy that much of the recent startup activity around automation seems centered on products and services, such as custom boba tea and on-demand delivery, that have become mass-market hits in the past couple of decades. It鈥檚 a reminder of the extent to which we modern humans regularly add new and enticing consumables to our routines.

Relying on actual humans to satiate our never-ending wish lists will inevitably be futile.聽 If we want to continue and augment upon a modern pampered lifestyle of on-demand products, services, and deliveries, it鈥檚 clear machines will need to do an even bigger share of the work.

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