Sarcos Technology and Robotics

Sarcos was founded in 1983 by Stephen Jacobsen and operated principally as a bioengineering research institution. By 1992, Jacobsen increased attention to commercial interests such as animated film props, prostheses, and human/computer interfaces. In 2000, Sarcos accepted a grant from DARPA, the research arm of the United States Department of Defense, to develop a design for a powered exoskeleton suitable for military applications. DARPA accepted the Sarcos design in 2006 and the firm began developing prototypes. In November 2007, Raytheon purchased Sarcos for an undisclosed sum, seeking to expand into robotics research and production.

In 2006, Sarcos attracted media attention for developing an exoskeleton that is designed to be worn by a human, that was at the time slated for production in 2008 for the United States Army.From 2007 until 2014, Sarcos operated as the robotics division of American defense contractor Raytheon and was known as Raytheon Sarcos. During this period, Raytheon Sarcos was focused exclusively on developing technologies for use by U.S. governmental agencies.

The company was a division of Raytheon until 2015 when Raytheon Sarcos President and Mission Center Executive Dr. Fraser Smith and technology entrepreneur Ben Wolff led a consortium that acquired the business from Raytheon. In September 2016, Cottonwood Technology Fund, Caterpillar, GE Ventures and Microsoft led a financing round to provide Sarcos with growth capital to commercialize its products. A number of additional investors have also provided funding, including Schlumberger, Rotor Capital, Alex. Brown, DIG Investment and others. Sarcos was listed on NASDAQ in September 2021.Sarcos has developed technologies in partnership with, and for, government agencies such as DARPA, NASA, the Department of Homeland Security, Fortune 100 companies such as AT&T, Boeing, Ford, Merck, and Xerox PARC, and universities such as MIT and Carnegie Mellon. With more than $300 million invested in the development of its technologies and over 140 patents related to its core products, Sarcos’ technologies represent decades of advancements in complex electro-mechanical and biologically inspired engineered systems. Sarcos has been one of the top recipients of DARPA funding over the years.