Automation Market Outlook 2025: Key Insights & Innovations

The 2025 Automation Market Outlook report analyzes the evolving trends driving the automation market, including smart manufacturing, AI, and real-time data optimization. It highlights key growth factors, the impact of technological innovations on businesses and global supply chains, as well as the role of investments, partnerships, and collaborations in accelerating automation adoption.

Executive Summary: Automation Market Outlook 2025

• Industry Growth Overview: The automation market has more than 126 230+ companies and 15 000+ startups. It is expected to reach USD 238 011 million by 2030, at a CAGR of 7.20% during 2024-2030. On a micro level, the market grew by a rate of 2.46% last year as per our platform’s latest data.
• Manpower & Employment Growth: The market employs over 6 million individuals globally, with an increase of 478K+ new jobs added in the last year.
• Patents & Grants: The automation market features more than 325K patents and 6400+ grants. The yearly patent growth rate is 7.51%, with the US and India leading in patent issuance.
• Global Footprint: Key hubs for the automation market include the United States, India, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Italy, showcasing a diverse global infrastructure supporting market growth. Major city hubs encompass Bangalore, London, New York City, Pune, and Singapore.
• Investment Landscape: The average investment value per funding round exceeds USD 16 million, with over 43 720+ funding rounds closed. More than 25K investors are actively engaged in the automation market.
• Top Investors: Major investors include Norilsk Nickel, Interros, Goldman Sachs, Accel, Insight Partners, and more collectively invested over USD 11.20 billion.
• Startup Ecosystem: Five innovative startups, StayAhead (accounts receivable and revenue cycle management), Luo Automation (visual inspection for healthcare), Coboticys (intra-logistics automation), Agrowtein Labs (farm management and cultivation optimization), and Squair (IoT platform for smart management) showcase the market’s global reach and entrepreneurial spirit.

What Data is Used to Create This Automation Market Report?

Based on the data provided by our Discovery Platform, we observe that the automation market ranks among the top 5% in the following categories relative to all 20K topics in our database.

These categories provide a comprehensive overview of the market’s key metrics and inform the short-term future direction of the market.

• News Coverage & Publications: The automation market has garnered attention, with more than 81 990 publications in the past year.
• Funding Rounds: There have been over 43 720 funding rounds recorded in our database for this automation domain.
• Manpower: The market employs more than 6 million workers globally, with an addition of over 478K new employees in the past year alone.
• Patents: The automation market has generated more than 325K patents.
• Grants: Over 6400 grants have been awarded to companies within the automation market domain.
• Yearly Global Search Growth: The market experienced a yearly global search growth of 9.93%.

Methodology: How We Created This Automation Report

This report is based on proprietary data from our AI-powered Startus Insights Discovery Platform, which tracks 25 million companies and 20 000 technologies and trends globally, including detailed insights on approximately 5 million startups, scaleups, and tech companies. Leveraging this extensive database, we provide actionable insights on emerging technologies and market trends.

For this report, we focused on the evolution of automation over the past 5 years, utilizing our platform’s trend intelligence feature. Key data points analyzed include:

• Total Companies working on the trend
• News Coverage and Annual Growth
• Market Maturity and Patents
• Global Search Volume & Growth
• Funding Activity and Top Countries
• Subtrends within automation

Our data is refreshed regularly, enabling trend comparisons for deeper insights into their relative impact and importance.

Additionally, we reviewed external resources to supplement our findings with broader market data and predictions, ensuring a reliable and comprehensive overview of the automation market.

Explore the Data-driven Automation Market Outlook for 2025

Did you know that countries like China and India are leading the growth in automation, driven by their large manufacturing bases and government initiatives?

The automation market report 2025 uses data from the Discovery Platform and encapsulates the key metrics that underline the sector’s dynamic growth and innovation. Our database includes 15K+ startups within a total of 126 200+ companies which reflects a 2.46% growth in the market over the past year.

According to Grand View Research, the global industrial automation and control systems market size was estimated at USD 206.33 billion in 2024 and is anticipated to witness a CAGR of 10.8% from 2025 to 2030.

Global industrial automation and control systems market, 2018-2030 (USD M)

Source: Grand View Research

With more than 325K patents and 6400 grants, the automation market continues to drive innovation. The global workforce is substantial, with over 6 million employees, adding 478K+ new jobs in the last year.

The heatmap also highlights the top five country hubs as the United States, India, Germany, United Kingdom, and Italy. Moreover, the major city centers of Bangalore, London, New York City, Pune, and Singapore emerged as centers of automation activity.

A Snapshot of the Global Automation Market

The automation market showcases steady growth, with an annual rate of 2.46% and 15000+ startups spanning stages of development.

Early-stage startups account for over 5476, while more than 5205 companies have undergone mergers or acquisitions.

Patents remain a critical driver of innovation, with 325K+ patents filed by 20K+ applicants, reflecting a yearly growth of 7.51%.

The US leads patent issuance with over 33210 filings, followed by India with 14 370+.

Explore the Funding Landscape of the Automation Market

The automation market has seen major investor interest, with an average investment value of USD 16 million per round. Over 25K investors have participated in more than 43 720 funding rounds. These rounds have supported over 11 530 companies which highlight the market’s strong appeal to investors and its potential for continued growth.

Who is Investing in the Automation Market?

The combined investment value of the top investors in the automation market exceeds USD 11.20 billion.

• Norilsk Nickel has invested USD 1.4 billion in at least 1 company.
• Interros has invested USD 1.4 billion in at least 1 company. It invested approximately USD 44 million in the construction of the Three Volcanoes ski resort in Kamchatka.
• SK has invested USD 1.3 billion in 3 companies. It plans to invest approximately USD 74.8 billion through 2028, with a focus on high-bandwidth memory HBM chips.
• Air Liquide has invested USD 1.3 billion in at least 1 company. It plans to invest over USD 250 million in an Idaho plant to supply high-purity gases for Micron Technology’s chip production.
• Insight Partners has invested USD 1.3 billion in 60 companies. It secured USD 1.5 billion for continuation fund III, led by HarbourVest Partners.
• Y Combinator has invested USD 966.2 million in 433 companies.
• Sequoia Capital has invested USD 925.3 million in 68 companies. It led a USD 77 million series B funding round for Fireworks AI.
• Accel has invested USD 904.4 million in 66 companies.
• Tiger Global Management has invested USD 879.9 million in 64 companies.
• Goldman Sachs has invested USD 827.5 million in 30 companies.

Top Automation Innovations & Trends

Following are the emerging trends in the automation market along with their firmographic details:

• Predictive Analytics is increasingly integrated into automation to improve decision-making and streamline operations. With 9980+ total companies and a workforce of over 515K employees, this market is growing at an annual rate of 15.10%. It has added 58K new employees which indicates talent demand to support this expanding field. Predictive analytics is improving how companies anticipate challenges and proactively adjust strategies, positioning it as a critical component of automation strategies.
• Robotics is one of the most prominent trends in the automation market, with 71 850+ companies and more than 3 million employees globally. The domain has seen a growth rate of 5.58% annually. The robotics market continues to expand with the integration of automation into manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, and more. With 241K new employees added in the past year, robotics remains a high-growth area, driven by artificial intelligence (AI) and increased adoption of robotic systems across diverse sectors.
• Industrial IoT is experiencing more moderate growth, with 21 780+ companies identified in this domain and 1 million employees. The market added 73K new employees last year, yet the annual trend growth rate is currently negative at -0.40%. Despite this, IIoT remains crucial for the automation of industrial processes as it enables real-time monitoring and control of machines, systems, and infrastructure.

5 Top Examples from 15K+ Innovative Automation Startups

The five innovative startups showcased below are picked based on data including the trend they operate within and their relevance, founding year, funding status, and more. Book a demo to find promising startups, emerging trends, or industry data specific to your company’s needs and objectives.

StayAhead delivers Accounts Receivable and Revenue Cycle Management

US-based startup StayAhead offers Pearl, an RPA robot to automate the data exchange and document processing tasks within organizations. It normalizes, organizes, and loads data from sources like PDFs, Excel, CSV, JSON, and unstructured documents.

Pearl operates autonomously, handles high volumes of repetitive tasks, and provides continuous processing capabilities to offer near-real-time data processing. Further, the startup’s solutions include Do!, a conversational bot with integrated workflows for unattended automation that allows customers to interact with systems and carry out tasks without support staff.

StayAhead also offers maintenance and migration services, including continuous monitoring, troubleshooting, performance tuning, and periodic upgrades.

These services, combined with RPA and AI-powered solutions, allow clients to increase their employee’s productivity, reduce costs, and streamline operations in accounts receivable, healthcare revenue cycle operations, and accounting and tax.

Luo Automation deploys Visual Inspection for Healthcare

Dutch startup Luo Automation builds VI-Assist, an automated visual inspection system to improve the quality of inspecting small and medium-sized batches of medicines.

This system uses a patented VI-Module to hold containers like ampules, vials, or syringes, while the VI-Detect software employs AI-based image analysis to identify defects.

The system’s flexibility allows for easy changes between product types without hardware adjustments. VI-Assist is also compact and simple, optimizing setup time with readily available materials for training its algorithms and reducing false reject rates.

Further, the VI-Assist system caters to varying speed requirements. Its combination of high-quality measurements, minimal footprint, and ease of maintenance establishes it as a valuable solution for the pharmaceutical industry.

Coboticys advances Intra-Logistics Automation

Coboticys is a Portuguese startup that develops AI-enabled automation solutions for intra-logistics. Cruiser is a robotic system for efficient and safe material handling in dynamic environments. The startup also offers Quadron, an automated shuttle system for material storage and retrieval, and Zippy, a high-speed robot for optimizing goods-to-person picking.

These systems integrate easily with its warehouse management systems (WMS), warehouse control systems (WCS), and fleet management systems (FMS). Additionally, Coboticys offers the UV disinfectant mobile robot, Decimator, for maintaining safe, clean environments in healthcare and industrial settings.

Agrowtein Labs optimizes Farm Management

Agrowtein Labs is an Indian startup that develops automated solutions for agricultural innovation. Its technologies include AGROWTRACK, a precision farm management tool that uses data-driven insights to optimize agricultural practices.

Additionally, AGVENTURE is a vertical axis tiltable water pump to streamline irrigation and minimize water waste. PinePack Pro is a pineapple sapling bundling system that improves pineapple cultivation by automating the labor-intensive bundling of saplings.

The startup further offers services, such as greenhouse automation and hydroponics systems, that integrate smart sensors and automated controls to improve productivity and resource efficiency.

Squair simplifies Energy and Water Monitoring

Brazilian startup Squair provides an IoT platform that enables the monitoring and automation of energy, water, and temperature data. The platform integrates industrial protocols like Modbus and BACnet that allow easy monitoring and control of assets.

Its smart energy sensors provide precise measurements for real-time control over energy consumption, electrical parameters, and CO2 emissions. Squair’s solution also features a plug-and-play design, simplified 3G/4G connectivity, and compatibility with widely used multimeters.

Further, by offering continuous online monitoring, automated alerts, and optimization, the startup reduces energy consumption, maintenance costs, and emissions.

Gain Comprehensive Insights into Automation Trends, Startups, or Technologies

In 2025, the automation market will expand as developments in edge computing, digital twins, and autonomous systems reshape industries. These technologies will drive operational efficiency, improve decision-making, and reduce costs. Businesses will increasingly adopt automation to streamline processes, improve productivity, and reduce human error.

Get in touch to explore all 15K+ startups and scaleups, as well as all market trends impacting 126 230+ companies.