Industrial robots have been the biggest commercial application of robotics technology to date, and it is poised for dynamic growth in the future. With an uptick in sales and adoption, the buzz around robotics is loud and clear.
Even Fortune Business Insights reports that the global industrial robots market is projected to grow from $15.60B in 2021 to $31.13B in 2028 at a CAGR of 10.4% in the forecast period.
Based out of Dresden, Germany, Wandelbots, the robotic software company, is already on a mission to make industrial robots accessible for everyone.
The German company announced on Monday, that it has raised over $84M in a Series C financing round.
The round was led by Insight Partners, with participation from existing investors 83North, Microsoft, Next47, Paua, Atlantic Labs, and EQT.
How will the funding be used?
Wandelbots will use the new funding to open its Robotics Software Platform to automation solution providers and third-party developers to create a developer community. It will enable developers to build their robotics applications on top of a manufacturer-agnostic control plane.
Further, the company plans to use the funding to scale its flagship teaching solution to support more robots, applications, and regions worldwide, expand its global footprint, accelerate hiring and build go-to-market organisations in the US and Asia.
Christian Piechnick, CEO and Co-Founder of Wandelbots, said: “I’m very proud to see Wandelbots mission become a reality. Our platform will help to accelerate human-centred robotics solutions in the industry. We look forward to working with Insight Partners and can’t wait to see what developers will create in the future based on our transformative technology.”
Robots for the people
Founded in 2017, Wandelbots’s no-code approach enables application experts to teach their robots independently and become robot experts without the need for coding skills.
The company’s teaching solution ‘Wandelbots Teaching’ removes the barrier to programming robots with easy-to-use software interfaces. Further, the hardware-agnostic software platform allows for the same interface for all robots.
By making robotics simple and accessible to application experts, Wandelbots empowers companies, large and small, to work easily with robots on their shop floors.
Clients and partnerships
The platform is used by several leading robot manufacturers and OT system integrators, claims the company.
Robots from Universal Robots & Yaskawa at customers like BMW, VW, Fraunhofer, Schaeffler, Rotop, and Vitesco run on Wandelbots.
The company has partnered with system integrators across Europe, including Gibas, Alumotion, Heidenbluth, and Sojka.
Wandelbots today employs more than 140 people from 17 countries. Its headquarters are in Dresden, Germany.
Investors
Insight Partners is a global venture capital and private equity firm investing in high-growth technology and software scaleup companies.
The company has invested in more than 400 companies worldwide and has raised through a series of funds more than $30B in capital commitments.
Philine Huizing, Principal at Insight Partners, that will join the Wandelbots board, says: “One of the largest challenges we see in the adoption of robotics and increased automation, from a time, cost, and talent perspective, is robot programming. Wandelbots dramatically streamlines robot programming across OEMs and manufacturers using a platform approach. Their impressive manufacturing partnerships and strong technical team have made Wandelbots a standout in the industry. Wandelbots’ long-term vision is to be the universal control plane for the massively complex and fragmented ecosystem of robotics. We look forward to partnering with the Wandelbots team as they continue to grow and realize their vision of democratizing the robotics market.”
