The Stuttgart start-up was born out of a Fraunhofer Institute. A first investment should help on the way tothe industry.
Faster start for the automated helpers: In order to simplify the commissioning of robots in the industry, Stuttgart-based startup drag & bot is developing software. Now the founders receive seven-digit financial support. The million-dollar funding is led by venture capitalist Speedinvest – or, more precisely, by its funds for investment in industry-related start-ups. In addition, non-named “strategic partners” complement the circle of financiers.
What does drag & bot does?
With the product, drag & bot wants to reach customers, especially in industrial SMEs. The price of lighter and smaller industrial robots has fallen in recent years – however, if the machines are often to be used for changing tasks, the cost of commissioning and reprogramming quickly increases. The software is designed to help make robot programming “as easy as using a smartphone,” says co-founder Martin Naumann.
Start-ups and financing
The start-up was spun off a year ago from the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Engineering and Automation (IPA). At the Hannover Messe last year, there was already a special prize in the start-up competition of the Federal Ministry of Economics for the area “Industry 4.0”.
In the field of robotics, some German start-ups were recently able to announce financing. Just last week Synapticon, a start-up from the Stuttgart area, also announced financing – here, too, the focus is on hardware and software for robots. In December, Wandelbots secured a six-million financing. The people of Dresden are working on the same problem as drag & bot, but rely on sensors from the west, with which people show the robots the desired movement sequences.
Also published on Medium.