Robco successfully completes its Series B financing round and secures Lightspeed Venture Partners as an investor. The Munich-based startup is receiving €39 million from Lightspeed and other investors to accelerate its development and growth. Former Apple and Nvidia investor Sequoia Capital, Kindred Capital, and Promus Ventures are also participating in the current financing round. The newly acquired capital will be invested primarily in further expanding sales and product development.
Simple and efficient programming
Robco was founded in 2020 by Roman Hölzl, Paul Maroldt, and Constantin Dresel. The founders had previously worked together as research assistants at the Chair of Robotics and AI at TUM. The startup specializes in the development of flexibly adaptable robot hardware kits for various use cases in medium-sized manufacturing—such as machine loading and unloading or palletizing.
The Munich-based startup aims to enable small and medium-sized manufacturing companies to easily operate automated robots. The robots are configured and operated for their specific application using a proprietary cloud software platform. The Munich-based company's software kit allows industrial robots to be programmed easily and efficiently. Roman Hölzl, CEO and co-founder of Robco, explains:
"The continuous development of our modular robot platform for industrial use is crucial for meeting current and future challenges in business and society. Today, our robots can already be configured, programmed, and managed using software and AI. The next step is to make industrial robots even more autonomous and intelligent in their operational environment."
He continues:
"With our Robco Autonomy approach, we are focusing on an even deeper AI implementation in our software so that in the near future, robots will be able to independently sense and analyze their environment, as well as plan and execute actions according to the 'Sense-Reason-Act' triad."
Use of robotics no longer reserved for large corporations
Alex Schmitt, Partner at Lightspeed, says:
"The use of robotics in industrial environments has so far been almost exclusively reserved for large corporations with the corresponding financial and human resources. High costs and enormous complexity have made them prohibitively expensive and difficult to manage for small and medium-sized enterprises. Robco has already achieved a major breakthrough in this field with its developments. We recognize enormous potential here, both technologically and commercially, for the German and international markets. This potential must now be optimally promoted and thus enable the use of robotic automation solutions for all companies."
And Roman Hölzl added:
"We are just at the beginning of a far-reaching automation journey and aim to become a European leader in modular robot automation for SMEs. Robco is uniquely positioned with its easy-to-implement robots that deliver a positive ROI from day one. We see ourselves as an extension of companies in automating their production and supporting their transformation to Industry 4.0. The fact that a venture capital giant like Lightspeed is supporting our next steps with a €39 million financing round shows us that we are on the right track – and is also an incredible motivational boost for all of us to take our solutions to the next level."
