Google is taking a stake in a Silicon Valley-based robotics company that has yet to reveal its first product. Savioke’s work may be under wraps, but it has announced plans to begin customer trials of a service industry-targeted machine this year. Google has acquired eight other robotics companies outright over the past year. Its latest investment may be relatively small but experts say that it should boost confidence in the sector. Savioke has disclosed a total $2m (£1.2m) of seed finance, which includes cash from other sources in addition to an undisclosed sum from Google Ventures, the search giant’s investment arm. Savioke was only established last year. However, its chief executive, Steve Cousins, has previous experience in the sector, having launched the PR2 robot – a machine targeted at robotics software developers wishing to try out their code.