Germany-based robotics training technology producer Wandelbots has raised $30m from investors including industrial technology manufacturer Siemens and software provider Microsoft, TechCrunch reported yesterday.
The round was led by venture capital firm 83North and, according to media reports, included Atlantic Labs, EQT Ventures, Haniel, Paua Ventures and private investor Alexander Rinke, while Siemens and Microsoft participated through their Next47 and M12 subsidiaries respectively.
Founded in 2017, Wandelbots has developed a machine learning tool called TracePen, which uses automated programming to enable regular users to teach industrial robots to carry out sophisticated, industry-specific tasks.
Wandelbots’ co-founder and CEO, Christian Piechnick told TechCrunch: “We enable manufacturers to use robots with an unseen flexibility and we dramatically lower the cost of using robots. Our product enables non-programmers to easily teach a robot new tasks and thus reduces the involvement of hard-to-find and costly programmers.”
TracePen was publicly launched today and leverages research from Technical University of Dresden’s Faculty of Computer Science. The company’s customers already included BMW, Volkwagen and Infineon, and the funding will go to TracePen’s commercialisation and global expansion efforts.
Paua Ventures and EQT Ventures joined unnamed existing investors to provide $6.8m in series A funding for Wandelbots in December 2018. It had collected an undisclosed amount of seed capital from TechCrunch at its Disrupt Battlefield contest the year before.
