EUR 23 Million Venture Capital for Fruitcore Robotics in Series B Financing Round
Constance, December 14th, 2022 – fruitcore robotics has raised 23 million euros in new capital in a Series B financing round. For the first time, internationally renowned venture capital firms Capricorn Partners and KOMPAS, and the high and deep tech investor XAI technologies are investing in the pioneer of intelligent robotics and automation solutions for companies of all sizes – from medium-sized businesses to global corporations. Existing investors are also confident: UVC Partners, Matterwave Ventures, CNB Capital, the family business Pecon and the btov Private Investor Network are participating in the financing round. The capital is intended to accelerate product innovation, sales and marketing and international expansion.
“With the closing of our Series B financing, we are again a big step closer to our goal of making robotics and automation solutions accessible to the masses. We see that the demand for high-quality and easy-to-use robots in the market is steadily increasing. Therefore, we will use the new capital primarily to serve the demand for our robotics and automation solutions as well as digital products in the European market,” says Jens Riegger, Managing Director (CEO) and co-founder of fruitcore robotics. The company is currently active in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. By the end of 2023, fruitcore robotics aims to open up a large part of the European market.
“We are still at the beginning of the robots'growth trajectory, especially in medium-sized businesses, and we are convinced that with our ‘digital robot’ HORST we are one of the game changers and thus a driving force for the broad use of robots in the manufacturing industry. We would like to thank our investors for the trust they have placed in us,” says Patrick Heimburger, Managing Director (Chief Revenue Officer) and co-founder, of fruitcore robotics. Josef Mardijan, Member of the Executive Board (CFO) of fruitcore robotics adds: “In times of political and economic uncertainty, the current financing round with a significant volume of 23 million euros once again confirms the attractiveness of our business model, and not least the trust placed in our team, of which we are very proud.” The company now employs more than 100 people and will create attractive jobs at its Constance and Villingen sites through further growth.
Business model and previous successes of fruitcore robotics
At the heart of fruitcore robotics’ success are the intelligent robotics solutions based around the HORST “digital robot”, which provides companies of all sizes with access to industrial-grade, highly productive robotics. Even small and medium-sized companies without prior experience can easily and quickly get started with automation and digitization. The barriers to entry are low – low investment costs, fast implementation, intuitive programming and high performance all come together to fulfill the claim. Hardware, software, connectivity and services are offered in an easy-to-use end-to-end solution.
Three years after its market launch, fruitcore robotics is already automating several hundred different applications in 29 industries, and the 60+ partner network in the DACH region and Italy is being continuously expanded.
Benjamin Erhart, General Partner at UVC Partners and lead investor of fruitcore robotics, said: “fruitcore robotics addresses a major pain point of our economy: scalable automation in small and medium-sized manufacturing companies. This is a key to addressing the critical situation of delivery times, growing demand, and production again increasingly focused on Europe on time. All this must succeed without having automation specialists in the mass of companies. Since our initial investment in 2021, fruitcore's team has proven that through incredibly deep software expertise – the majority of developers are software engineers – they have created an offering with the ‘digital robot’ that is perfectly tailored to the needs of mass customers.”
About fruitcore robotics
Constance-based fruitcore robotics GmbH specializes in the development, production, and marketing of technically outstanding and easy-to-use “digital robots”. The focus of the deep-tech company is to make robotic-based industrial automation available for the masses. The modularized product portfolio includes the HORST“digital robots”, the intuitive horst FX software, the horstCOSMOS.com Industrial IoT platform, and intelligent camera recognition functions. The robots are Made in Germany, from hardware to software. In addition to the robots, the company also offers ready-made solutions and software packages for plug & play implementation of complete applications.
fruitcore robotics was founded in 2017 and currently employs more than 100 people. In addition to its headquarters in Constance on Lake Constance, the company has a production site in Villingen.
The deep-tech company has already received several awards, including the Best of Industry Award from MM Maschinenmarkt magazine in the Robotics category (2020), the special prize from Mittelständische Beteiligungsgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg (MBG) as part of the Innovation Award of the State of Baden-Württemberg 2020, and the German Innovation Award 2021("Winner" in the Excellence in Business to Business – Machines & Engineering category). For more information, please visit www.fruitcore-robotics.com.
About UVC Partners
UVC Partners is a Munich- and Berlin-based early-stage venture capital firm that invests in European tech startups from pre-seed to series A. With more than €350m under management, the fund typically invests between €0.5m - 10m initially and up to €30m in total per company. With more than 100 industry partners in the network and a close cooperation with UnternehmerTUM, Europe’s leading innovation center, UVC Partners offers startups unique access to talent, industry contacts, and other financial partners.
