It wasn’t that long ago when the cinematic experience depicted robots replacing humans in the workplace. Needless to (thankfully) say, this hasn't been the case. Or at least not at the scale some scriptwriters would have us believe.
The robotic present and future we face today is one that not only provides value but incredible, if yet realised, potential.
Today we're spotlighting 10 European robotics startups from different areas of use that you should keep your eyes on.
Touchlab (UK)
Touchlab is a company that manufactures e-skin thinner than human skin. It can be wrapped around hard or soft surfaces to sense pressure and location in real-time. Applications include on-land, underwater, and in-space robotics & machines.
To make this possible, the company uses quantum tunnelling to make it truly biomimetic - sensing pressure and its location instead of force alone, enabling robots to roll pens, feel the texture, and sense pain like a human would.
And there is even more – it can be said that the TouchLab's e-skin has unique 'superhuman' abilities as it can withstand heavy loads, extreme environments such as acids, high and low temperatures, and even radioactive environments.
At the beginning of 2022, the company raised over $4.8 million with the aim to further strengthen its commercial and tech teams to meet the growing demand for large-scale e-skin deployments.
Starship Technologies (Estonia)
When it comes to the last mile delivery, Starship Technologies is the company that is redefining this industry. The company builds self-driving local delivery robots that are safe, reliable, clean and cost efficient.
Launched in 2014, their robots are now doing thousands of deliveries a day in towns, cities and campuses across the world. As stated by the company, autonomous delivery is no longer a future concept as Starship delivery robots have completed over 4 million autonomous deliveries. And this is the first and only robot delivery company to do so.
The company announced a new partnership with Trafford Council and Co-op, in March, 2023, a year after they raised $100 million, to expand its offerings in Europe and the US.
Nomagic (Poland)
Nomagic is a company that brings expertise in robotics, cloud and deep learning together with experience in logistics.
In order to get one step closer to full automation, their services are based on Intelligent Robotics, e-commerce and retail as they provide smart pick-and-place robotic systems that adapt to multiple environments. These robots can receive, store, sort and pack products, operating from 1 shift, 5 days a week to 24/7 depending on needs thus ensuring performance, reliability and scalability.
The robotic solutions include justPick, a picking robot that works with AutoStore and Shuttle systems, and justInduct, a robot that is able to pick multi-SKU batches.
The company’s portfolio of clients includes fashion, e-commerce and third-party logistics providers.
In the last funding round in May 2022, they raised $22 million.
German Bionic (Germany)
German Bionic is a company that develops and manufactures smart power suits and other wearable technologies that protect the health of workers and markedly reduce the risk of accidents and injury to consequently improve work processes.
They were the world’s first company to deliver connected exoskeletons for the workplace, applying self-learning and artificial intelligence to support lifting movements and prevent poor posture, becoming an intelligent link between humans and machines.
As their innovative technology puts people at the center of Industry 4.0, German Bionic has received numerous awards.
The company has raised €15 million of venture debt at the end of 2022.
Ganymed Robotics (France)
As there are more humans year-over-year, and the number of those in need of surgery also grows, the question is if there can be trained as many surgeons as the world is going to need.
To try to solve these problems, Ganymed Robotics is developing advanced AI and robotics technologies for orthopedic surgeons. They developed a unique robot-with-eyes platform that enhances surgeons’ ability to see beyond the naked eye and execute the perfect gesture. Also, the company's custom-designed co-manipulated arm embarks a wide range of multimodal sensors to perceive and interpret the surgical scene in an actionable manner.
In their latest funding round in January 2023, the company secured €15 million.
The company's goal is to improve patient outcome, surgeon experience, and overall efficiency of joint replacement interventions.
ecoRobotix (Switzerland)
ecoRobotix is a company that offers precise, reliable and affordable robotic solutions, which make farmers’ lives easier in producing healthy food.
They develop, manufacture and commercialise innovative, energy-saving farming machines, which allow both the ecological impact of modern farming and its costs to be reduced, thus contributing to the emergence of farming which respects the environment, focused on preserving soils and hydrological resources, by using a minimal amount of energy.
In May 2023, the company raised $52 million, which will be used to further fuel the expansion plans, with a particular emphasis placed on the American markets.
1X (Norway)
The company 1X designs androids that work alongside people, to meet the world’s labor demands and build an abundant society. Their products are inspired by human nature, inside and out, as they believe that to serve the world, androids need to experience it.
Their androids EVE and NEO, paired with flexible mechanics that mimic organic muscle movement, are truly inspired by human nature.
In March 2023, the company raised $23.5 million. The company planned to use the funds at ramping up production of bipedal android model NEO in tandem with scaling up manufacturing of its first commercially available android, EVE in Norway and North America.
uWare (Belgium)
uWare Robotics is a company specializing in data-driven engineering solutions for coastal environments. They are providing autonomous 2D seabed mapping and map generation. The next phase consists of autonomous 3D inspection applicable for infrastructure such as ports, ship hulls and more complex ecosystems such as coral reefs.
The company is using highly mobile AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) and modular sensor systems for data gathering and provide a software platform for the processing and analyzing of that data.
It is important to mention that their solutions will also be translated to blue economy industries for environmental assessments, and infrastructure monitoring.
At the beginning of June 2023, the company raised €500,000.
Keybotic (Spain)
Keybotic is the company that builds autonomous robot dogs, Keyper, for industrial maintenance and inspection checks. Keyper can detect incidents like gas leaks, read industrial instruments and send alerts in real time about anomalities and dangers.
In conducting such tasks, robot dogs do not need human interaction, carrying out security and maintenance in complex environments. It sends alerts about any incidents it finds and offers images to a centralised control platform.
The company raised €3 million in March 2023, to commercialize Keyper, the autonomous robot dog for industrial inspections.
AirForestry (Sweden)
Founded in 2020, Airforestry is a company that uses technology for thinning forests in a completely new way, namely from the air.
The company uses electric harvesting drones controlled from an operator station in order to make it possible to thin forests without damaging land or surrounding trees. Through innovative thinning, they contribute to reducing carbon dioxide emissions from forestry work while increasing the forest's ability to sequester carbon.
The main goal and driving force of AirForestry is to create better forests, thus contributing to a more sustainable society, economically as well as environmentally and socially.
The company raised SEK9 million in 2021.
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