IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2016 - 14

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Mario Munich (iRobot)
IERA award
Dominik Bösl (KUKA)
Industry Forum
Tamas Haidegger (University of
Obuda)
RAM column

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Zexiang Li (Hong Kong University of
Science and Technology)
entrepreneurship boot camps
Sabine Hauert (University of
Bristol)
Public Relation and Networking European Startup Scene

Elena García (Marsi Bionics)
gender and entrepreneurship.
I thank the IAB members for their
support. If you want to find out
more about the RAS IAB and its
activities, please contact prassler@
ieee.org.

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Building a Startup Ecosystem
for Robotics in Europe
By Sabine Hauert

I

t is an exciting time to have a
startup in robotics. The European
startup ecosystem is improving year
after year and provides networking,
mentoring, and funding opportunities.
The aim is to build a vibrant startup
scene that is capable of rivaling the
main hubs around the world; with a
number of success stories over the past
year, this could happen soon.
Founded in 2005 by three research-
ers at the University of Southern Den-
mark in Odense, Universal Robots
quickly grew to become one of the top
producers of collaborative robots. The
company was acquired by Teradyne
last year for more than €300 million.
This is just one example in a string of
European robotics companies acqui-
red in the past year. The medical
device company TransEnterix Surgical
acquired Italian Telelap ALF-X robot
for €85 million. The U.K.-based Soil
Machine Dynamics, Ltd., maker of
remote intervention equipment oper-
ating in hazardous environments, was
acquired for €165 million. Also in the
hazardous business, Oxford Technolo-
gies was acquired by Kurion for an
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MRA.2016.2588003
Date of publication: 13 September 2016

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IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

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undisclosed amount; a German maker
of flying robots, Ascending Technolo-
gies, was acquired by Intel.
Venture capital funding worldwide
hit a record high, estimated at €825
million last year. At least five Euro-
pean startups benefited from the
investment frenzy. The French com-
pany BALYO announced that it
raised €10 million for their robotic
material handling solutions. Sky
Futures, experts in drone inspections
in oil and gas, raised €3 million. The
French agribot company Naïo Tech-
nologies raised €3 million. Rapyuta
Robotics raised €2.65 million to build
robots for physical security purposes,
and Flyability raised more than €2
million to produce its inspection
drone (Figure 1).
This does not even include crowd-
funding. French startup Blue Frog
Robotics raised €565,000 on Indiegogo
for its social robot Buddy. The Swiss
robot Fotokite, a tethered drone for aer-
ial imaging, received €366,000 on Indi-
egogo. Robo WunderKind from Austria
raised €218,000 on Kickstarter for its
educational robot blocks. Looking at
these numbers, it is no surprise that
there is a lot of excitement about start-
ups. Beyond the startups mentioned

SEPTEMBER 2016

here, there are dozens more currently
building up. So, how do we make sure
there is a clear pipeline from ideation to
market? The key is to provide visibility,
mentoring, and funding.
Visibility
Robot startup competitions provide
excellent visibility to teams and access
to investment, and they inspire the 
next generation of students to start
a  company.
"Startup competitions are a good
source for contacts, press, and some-
times money," said Ricardo Téllez,
chief technical officer and cofounder
of The Construct Sim and winner of
this year's Entrepreneurship Award
at the European Robotics For um.
He said,
Startup competitions are excel-
lent practice grounds for startups.
They push startups to be fact-
based about their viability,
express with clarity the ideas
behind the business, and defend
the startup position in front of a
panel of experts. This provides
excellent feedback for the start-
ups that they can learn from. It is
not about winning, but really
about gaining the experience that
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2016
