Agile Robots gets into position - high number of employees astonished
Agile Robts is another German-Chinese cobot startup that appears to be on the verge of entering the market. Because the company now announced the appointment of Sebastian Lars Lange as Director Sales & Business Development. In his new position, he will be responsible for setting up and coordinating the company's sales organization from August 1, 2021. Until now, he has been employed by Universal Robots. Agile Robots is a spin-off of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and has stood for the combination of artificial intelligence as well as robotics technology since its founding in 2018, the company said. Its previously known cobot has 7 axes, a built-in camera that enables real-time 3D capture, very good force-moment senors, the ability to adapt to unknown environments using AI, and an efficient planning and programming tool.
Soon the number of employees could rise to 500
The same press release states: "Within the past year, Agile Robots was able to increase the number of its employees in Germany to currently around 100 employees and 270 employees in China. At the beginning of the year, the company moved into its new head office in Munich with 2,600 square meters of office space on two floors. By the end of the year, Agile Robots plans to continue to significantly expand its staff in Germany and China."
That means the company already has 370 employees to finance today and by the end of the year it will probably be around 500, according to my interpretation. Chinese skilled workers are hardly or not at all cheaper than German ones. Against this background, the US$100 million raised so far does not seem that much. However, only just under 6 million euros had been "burned" by the end of 2019. In 2020, an annual average of 50 employees is likely to have been employed in Germany alone. The 108 employees listed on LinkedIn today have only been employed for 0.6 years on average. That means Agile Robots has tremendous integration work to do.
Combination with robot hand?
The company, which is heavily influenced by Chinese investors and employees, has two managing directors. It is interesting to note that Peter Meussel, the German managing director, is apparently pushing ahead with or reactivating his company, Wessling Robotcis GmbH, which he founded back in 2013. Wessling Robotics GmbH has replicated the humanoid hand. It is possible that the hand will one day be used by Agile Robots.
Agile Robots itself apparently shares patents with a subsidiary of China's Horizon Robotics.
If the cobots live up to their promise, they will not only be competing with other robot manufacturers, but also with companies that offer vision or programming aids. The customer would get everything from one source in one device instead of having to combine components.
Are we networking? LinkedIn
-> To the Cobot group on LinkedIn(Link)
On my own account/ Advertising
The author of this blog is significantly involved in the AI/ robotics project Boost-Bot. He advises robotics companies and investors on market (entry)/business development and funding/subsidies. The standard book on cobots is also written by Guido Bruch. More about him can be found here.