Korean firm buys control of Philly’s Ghost Robotics in $240M deal

LIG Nex1, a South Korean maker of electronic warfare and communications equipment, says it has paid $240 million for a 60% controlling stake in Ghost Robotics, a Philadelphia-based developer of the Vision 60 dog-like four-legged robots used by the military and law enforcement.

Ghost’s 62 employees, including chief executive Gavin Kenneally and chief technology officer Avik De who cofounded Ghost with the late Jiren Navendra Parikh at the University of Pennsylvania in 2015, will remain based at Ghost’s Philadelphia headquarters. They “will continue to manage the business in their current roles,” said Michael J. Subhan, chief marketing officer, in an email.

“We look forward to future expansion” as part of LIG Nex1, Subhan said. More than 450 Vision 60 Q-UGV robots have been sold. Military clients include U.S., South Korean, and Japanese forces, and other users include private groups on behalf of Israeli forces, according to trade journals and other published accounts, which Subhan confirmed.

The company says these robot dogs weigh around 112 pounds and can carry 22 pounds. They can be assembled in the field in 15 minutes, sprint up to three meters a second, and move up to six miles (or for three hours) on a single battery charge.

According to Ghost, they are made to be used for perimeter security; to help cope with chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats; bomb disposal; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; and for industrial, search-and-rescue and public-safety applications. Some users have fit them with guns.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security tested Vision 60 in 2022 in the New York area and in a report noted that the robots can be used in special weapons and tactics (SWAT) operations.

The deal values Ghost at $400 million, making it among the most successful start-ups to get their beginning at Pennovation, the eight-year-old University of Pennsylvania incubator and corporate-partner space built on the site of Marshall Laboratories, a former DuPont Co. paint factory and lab on Grays Ferry Avenue.

The purchase of a majority stake in Ghost “aligns perfectly with our vision to lead the future of defense and security technology,” Shin Ick-hyun, chief executive of LIG Nex1, said in a statement. “Both companies [will] grow together,” building “robust, versatile, and reliable robotic solutions.”

Shin served for 30 years in the military of South Korea, a U.S. ally. He headed an Air Force unit and served as director of strategic planning division at that country’s Joint Chiefs of Staff before retiring in 2015. He joined LIG Nex1 in 2017 and was named chief executive last December.

As part of LIG Nex1, Ghost will be able to build more robots more quickly for military users, the company said in its statement. “Their investment and strategic guidance will accelerate our growth and enhance our ability to deliver groundbreaking robotic solutions to a wider range of industries and applications,” said Keneally, the Ghost CEO.

Military forces around the world have rushed to build more autonomous vehicles, as unmanned vehicles have been used in recent wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.

The University of Pennsylvania, whose engineering school dean, Vivek Kumar, pioneered quadcopter technologies, has mandated an ethics course for students who study weaponizatoin of robotics.

Students at Penn last year protested the use of Ghost robots by Israeli forces in Gaza. Selcuk Bayraktar, who was awarded a scholarship at Kumar’s robotics lab at Penn and earned his master’s degree there in 2004, is the founder of one of the most successful drone warfare manufacturers, Bayraktar Industries, whose lethal drones have been used against troops from Armenia, Syria, and Russia, among other countries.

Some robotics companies, including Philadelphia-based Exyn Technologies and Ghost’s dog-like-robot competitor Boston Dynamics, owned by South Korea-based Hyundai Motor Co., have said they will not seek military business.

With U.S. investors more interested in biotech and software start-ups, industrial groups from allied countries have been buying U.S. government contractors in search of winning more manufacturing deals from U.S. military and civilian agencies.

In Philadelphia, Korea-based Hanwha said earlier this month that it has agreed to buy Philly Shipyard, which made more than half the commercial ships built in the U.S. since 2020, from Norwegian shipbuilder Aker and other shareholders, for $100 million.