InOrbit, a provider of cloud-based robot management software, has closed $2.6 million in seed round investment.
The funding was led by Animo Ventures, with participation by Yamaha Motor Ventures and Laboratory Silicon Valley, Kärcher New Venture and other key institutional and individual investors.
InOrbit’s software-as-a-service enables robotics companies and operators to develop, deploy and orchestrate autonomous robots at global scale.
The company’s multi-cloud platform provides secure, real-time analytics and data collection, robot performance monitoring, incident management and remote interventions.
InOrbit says it will use the funding to grow its product team and continue raising awareness about the need for professional management tools and best practices for robot operations.
Florian Pestoni, CEO and co-founder at InOrbit, says: “Our goal is to support 1 million robots that positively impact the lives of 1 billion people.
“We want to put every robot in orbit around the cloud, combining robots’ ability to handle repetitive tasks with AI in the cloud to orchestrate and humans in the loop to provide direction.”
As robotics deployments scale to hundreds and thousands of robots, the complexity of operating a growing fleet of robots increases exponentially across the board, including deployment, mission definition and dispatching, real-time monitoring and incident response.
Customers across industries, including retail, logistics and agriculture have benefited from InOrbit’s platform to help them scale up operational monitoring of their robot fleets.
For example, Bossa Nova has been working with InOrbit to monitor its shelf-scanning robots in hundreds of retail stores across the US.
Sarjoun Skaff, co-founder and CTO of Bossa Nova, says: “InOrbit’s platform has helped us meet and exceed the expectations of our customers.
“We value this partnership as we take another step towards achieving our mission of powering the transformation of retail.”
Investors praised the company’s dedication to growing the robotics operations field.
Antonio Osio, partner at Animo Ventures, says: “The founding team at InOrbit combines passion, technical wizardry and a deep commitment to enable robotics to impact a billion lives globally.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated what the founders have been thinking for decades – that autonomous robots hold the key to a more resilient and thriving society. We believe the nascent field of RobOps is a key ingredient in building that future.”
Anish Patel, partner and mobility group lead for Yamaha Motor Ventures and Laboratory Silicon Valley, says: “We see a great deal of value in the robotics platform InOrbit has developed that improves the performance and expands the functionality of robotic fleets, and can positively impact the delivery of critical products and services across several sectors.”
Patel says his group focuses its investments on innovative technology and teams working to solve global issues in the delivery of health, food, mobility, life sciences and other essential functions.
Hartmut Jenner, CEO and chairman at Alfred Kärcher, says: “With the investment in InOrbit, we extend our initiatives in robotics, one of the major technology trends in the cleaning industry.
“In order to provide our customers with a comprehensive and scalable solution, robotic operations will be an essential component. Kärcher will benefit both from InOrbit’s cloud-based robot management platform and the team’s in-depth technological expertise.”
