Sunrise Robotics, a promising startup dedicated to revolutionizing industrial automation, has officially emerged from stealth mode, announcing a successful seed funding round of $8.5 million. This significant investment will fuel the company’s mission to deploy modular industrial robots and intelligent AI models designed for simple integration across diverse manufacturing environments.
The funding round was spearheaded by Plural, a prominent London-based early-stage venture capital firm co-founded by industry stalwarts like Wise cofounder Taavet Hinrikus and SongKick cofounder Ian Hogarth. Additional support came from a consortium of venture capital firms, including Tapestry, Seedcamp, Tiny.vc, and Prototype Capital, underscoring the strong belief in Sunrise Robotics’ innovative approach. While the company is headquartered in Ljubljana, Slovenia, it declined to disclose its valuation following the funding.
Sunrise Robotics is poised to address a critical and escalating challenge facing numerous European manufacturing firms: an acute labor shortage. Tomaz Stolfa, co-founder and CEO of Sunrise Robotics, highlighted the urgency of the situation, stating, “These businesses currently represent 15% of Europe’s GDP and employ 32 million people. But close to a third of this existing European manufacturing workforce is set to retire in the coming decade and industrial companies are already saying they cannot find enough young workers to replace those who are leaving.”
The company envisions industrial robots stepping in to perform manual tasks such as cutting, welding, fastening, and bolting, which are currently carried out by human workers on production lines. This strategic integration of robotics aims to mitigate the impact of the impending workforce deficit.
One of Sunrise Robotics’ key differentiators is its rapid deployment capability. Stolfa claims the company can have its two-armed robots operational on a new industrial production line in under 10 weeks, a stark contrast to the eight months typically required for traditional industrial robots that necessitate on-site programming.
Sunrise Robotics is not alone in its pursuit of more agile and affordable industrial robotics. Other innovators like Paris-based Inbolt are also focusing on industrial robotic arms, while Physical Intelligence is developing “foundation models” to enable robotic arms to handle a wide array of objects.
Stolfa elaborated on Sunrise’s software architecture, explaining that it “uses a combination of small AI models and conventional computer coding to control its robots.” He anticipates that as their robots acquire new skills, the deployment time for similar tasks in future environments will significantly decrease.
Furthermore, Stolfa emphasized the advantage of Sunrise’s standardized “cells,” their proprietary robotic workstations. These workstations, designed by Sunrise, are primarily assembled from off-the-shelf components, leading to reduced manufacturing and maintenance costs. “What we’ve done is we’ve productized the hardware,” he remarked.
Currently, Sunrise Robotics has secured letters of intent with roughly 10 customers, spanning diverse industries such as supercar development, high-performance batteries, and consumer electronics manufacturing.
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