Q-Bot, the UK robotics company tackling problems in the construction and retrofitting industry has just closed a £1.6M investment round which will finance its next stage of growth. The funding round was led primarily by the deep tech VC specialist EMV Capital led alongside Q-Bot’s parent company NetScientific PLC.
Saving homeowners’ energy bill
Applying robotics and AI, Q-Bot’s solutions have the ability to survey, maintain and upgrade existing buildings. The AI company has created intelligent robots which apply underfloor insulation underneath suspended floors. This unique method has proven to improve the energy efficiency properties of households as well as comfort with minimal disruption to daily life. Q-Bot’s solution is critically important in helping the UK and other nations’ households face the unprecedented rise in heating costs for this winter.
Retrofitting a suspended floor has many benefits including savings on energy bills, improving daily comfort, a lower carbon footprint and increasing property values. This also implies a healthier and warmer home to live in which contributes to tackling fuel poverty and our overall net-zero emissions goals.
What’s next for Q-Bots?
The Wandsworth-based robotics company, founded in 2012 by Mathew Holloway & Tom Lipinski, will build on its rapid growth to meet the increasing demand for its underfloor insulation services in the UK and overseas. The company was initially funded through a combination of government grants, private investment and sales revenue, with support from Climate-KIC, The Technology Strategy Board and The Department for Energy and Climate Change. As the UK’s leader in construction and retrofit robotics, Q-Bot already worked with both homeowners as well as social and private landlords and has now insulated more than 3,000 properties.
Q-Bot’s growth is supported by its expanding network of Accredited Installation Partners who are industrialising robot manufacturing at scale. The company is already offering a ‘Robot-as-a-Service’ which is a scalable model that teams up with locally successful & high-quality Accredited Installation Partners. There exists tens of millions of homes worldwide in need Q-Bot’s underfloor insulation robots.
Collaborative and creative partnering is critical to delivering services at scale. Over the past two years, Q-Bot has successfully partnered in the UK with additional partners who have had to go through training. Since October 2021, Q-Bot has worked overseas, partnering with a large French national insulation company and a local installer. This is a major company achievement as it opens up its service to even more properties in need of underfloor insulation which would otherwise be impossible to insulate and meet retrofit energy standards.
“Q-Bot’s robotics as a service offering is at the right place and right time, providing a massively scalable solution not only to the transition to a low-carbon economy but to the current crisis in growing households’ energy bills and energy security. We’re pleased also with growing international interest in the technology, which can see a further step-change in growth in future years,” highlighted Dr Ilian Iliev, EMV Capital’s MD.
