# Clinton Smith

> Clinton Smith is Co-Founder and CEO of RIOS Intelligent Machines, a Menlo Park-based robotics and AI company deploying dexterous robots in factories across industries like wood products, food, and beverage distribution. A Princeton-trained electrical engineer with a Ph.D. on laser spectrometers for wireless trace-gas sensing, he spent years at Xerox PARC and Physical Sciences Inc. before co-founding RIOS in 2018 with fellow PARC engineers. Under his leadership, RIOS has raised $37.5M total including a $13M Series B in March 2024 co-led by Yamaha Motor Corp. and IAG Capital Partners, pioneering a Robots-as-a-Service model that shifts CapEx burden away from manufacturers and promises outcomes from day one.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at RIOS Intelligent Machines
- **Organizations:** RIOS Intelligent Machines, PARC (A Xerox Company), Physical Sciences Inc., Princeton University
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Princeton University, Energy & Climate Scholars program, Princeton University, Nanotechnology for Clean Energy IGERT program, Rutgers University
- **Known for:** Co-founded and leads RIOS Intelligent Machines, which has raised $37.5M total in venture funding, Pioneered Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) model for industrial robotic workcells, Led RIOS through Series B round co-led by Yamaha Motor Corp. (who doubled their investment) and IAG Capital Partners in March 2024

## Career timeline

- **Pre-2018** — Principal Scientist at Physical Sciences Inc.
- **Pre-2018** — Senior Member of the Research Staff at PARC (A Xerox Company), where he worked on laser spectroscopy and sensor systems
- **2018** — Co-founded RIOS Intelligent Machines with four fellow former PARC engineers: Dr. Bernard Casse, Dr. Chris Lalau-Keraly, Dr. Christopher Paulson, and Matthew Shaffer
- **2022** — RIOS raises $28M Series A to automate old-line industries
- **2024-03** — RIOS closes $13M Series B co-led by Yamaha Motor Corp. and IAG Capital Partners; rolls out Mission Control AI platform

## Achievements

- Co-founded and leads RIOS Intelligent Machines, which has raised $37.5M total in venture funding
- Pioneered Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) model for industrial robotic workcells
- Led RIOS through Series B round co-led by Yamaha Motor Corp. (who doubled their investment) and IAG Capital Partners in March 2024
- Developed SPHINCS printed methane detection sensor array with ARPA-E funding at PARC
- Ph.D. research on high-accuracy laser spectrometers for wireless trace-gas sensor networks at Princeton
- Built and deployed methane detection sensors in experimental coal mining environments
- Scaled RIOS to 32 employees deploying AI-powered dexterous robots in wood, food, and beverage industries

## Latest updates

- **2024-03** — RIOS closes $13M Series B funding round co-led by Yamaha Motor Corp. and IAG Capital Partners, with Main Sequence doubling its pro-rata investment
- **2024-03** — RIOS launches Mission Control Center - an AI platform using machine vision for real-time manufacturing insights and production line monitoring
- **2024-01** — RIOS introduces RIOS Agents, an AI Industrial Engineering Platform for factory automation

## Links

- Website: https://www.clintonjsmith.com/
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/clintons

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/clinton-smith
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-14