London-headquartered PHINXT Robotics, an AI-led robotics software startup, has secured £2 million in oversubscribed funding. The round was led by Sure Valley Ventures with participation from Ada Ventures, Heartfelt, and Atlas Ventures. The company previously raised £600K funding in a pre-seed funding round.
Funds utilisation
The company will use the funds to grow its engineering and sales teams and begin expansion into mainland Europe where the team sees considerable opportunity.
What challenge does it address?
Traditionally, adopting robotics in warehouses has been hindered by exorbitant setup costs – often exceeding £500,000 – and the complexity of on-site deployment. Consequently, over 90% of warehouses remain fully manual.
PHINXT Robotics addresses these challenges head-on with its proprietary technology, which coordinates robots at the edge, simplifying robotic deployments by a factor of ten.
Led by experienced founders
PHINXT Robotics was founded in 2022 by Yanwen Chen and Quirino Zagarese, experts in autonomous systems. The CEO and Co-Founder, Yanwen Chen, is an expert in this space with two PhDs specialising in computer science and synchronisation communications for robotics. Yanwen developed the algorithm that allows robots to self-orchestrate safely even when they lose connections to central networks. She co-founded the company with Quirino Zagarese, PhD, an expert in distributed systems, to collaborate on building a scalable architecture and product.
What does the company do?
PHINXT Robotics is redefining the landscape of warehouse automation with its innovative cloud-based platform, designed to streamline robotic deployments and support a flexible monthly subscription model.
The company is revolutionising warehouse automation by offering a solution that can seamlessly integrate with any type of robot without the need for on-premise IT infrastructure or any upfront cost. The solution enables these robots to collaborate seamlessly and to create autonomous ecosystems for warehouses and entire supply chains, which has led those using the technology to double profit margins and increase productivity up to four times.
The company works on a per-robot leasing model for easy, low-cost adoption and to get the best-fitting robots for the customers. Unlike other server-based services, PHINXT’s unique platform can coordinate robots on the edge to to easily add new robots at low cost.
Yanwen Chen, Co-Founder, and CEO, PHINXT Robotics, said: “At PHINXT, our mission is to revolutionise the logistics industry with our cloud-based platform that seamlessly integrates any type of robot, enabling them to collaborate and coordinate in a shared space without the need for a centralised server. Our robot-agnostic platform supports warehouses at every stage of their automation journey, providing unparalleled flexibility and efficiency. We aim to be the gateway for the logistics industry, facilitating the integration of these robots into operations and helping businesses achieve a rapid return on investment. By accommodating different types of robots, we ensure that warehouses can optimise various tasks, from picking to transportation, enhancing overall productivity.
Investors’ views
Brian Kinane, Founding Partner at Sure Valley Ventures, said: “PHINXT’s unique edge computing technology helps warehouses to drastically increase performance and profitability, providing a highly flexible and cost-effective robotics solution that will enable far greater adoption. From day one, what stood out to us was the strength of PHINXT’s founding team, Yanwen, and Quirino, who have spent years specialising in robotics automation and distributed systems. As a specialist AI investor, we believe this is one of the strongest AI propositions to come out of the UK this year. PHIXNT has a clear advantage in terms of cost, simplicity and flexibility, and with their cutting-edge proprietary technology, are extremely well-positioned to disrupt this market globally.”
Check Warner, Partner at Ada Ventures & Co-founder of Diversity VC, added: “Yanwen Chen, CEO and co-founder of PHINXT, is without doubt one of the strongest technical founders we’ve met at Ada. Yanwen has not one but two PhDs focusing on the optimisation of distributed and autonomous systems and 11 years of experience in robotics managing engineering teams and building software. She developed the algorithm that allows robots to self-orchestrate safely even when they lose connection to central networks. We are delighted to be investing in such a visionary founder who is shaping the future of edge computing, robotics, and autonomous systems. We look forward to supporting Yanwen and PHINXT’s next phase of growth.”
What do we think about PHINXT Robotics?
With its innovative cloud-based platform, PHINXT enables seamless integration and coordination of various robots without requiring on-premise IT infrastructure, making automation accessible and affordable for a broader range of warehouses. This flexible, cost-effective approach not only boosts productivity and efficiency but also allows businesses to achieve rapid returns on investment, thereby transforming the logistics landscape and driving the future of warehouse automation.
