Flexiv receivesUS$100 million for its adaptive robots

The following article appeared at the end of November. A month later, the company raised $100 million from Meituan, Meta Capital, New Hope Group, Longwood, Jack Ma's YF Capital, Gaorong Capital, GSR Ventures and Plug and Play. My thesis: investor expectations are rising faster than demand for cobots. Those who invest 100 million expect 500 million back. Here is the November text, slightly updated:

Flexiv, a startup founded in San Francisco in 2016 and now heavily influenced by Chinese investors ($122 million), has an approach that goes beyond that of cobots: the robot should not only work safely with humans without sacrificing speed, but also learn continuously thanks to its AI. The robot arm should adapt to its environment by means of the combination of force control and AI, which is why Flexiv talks about adaptive robots. The goal is almost the "eierlegende Wollmchsau": Collisions are to be avoided, parts are to be recognized even if the lighting conditions are unfavorable or they have moved. Whether adaptive robots represent the next stage of cobots or whether the name is simply a clever marketing idea to create a stir is for everyone to judge for themselves. In any case, the Flexiv model Rizon is one of the most intelligent robots available. The Rizon has 7 axes and computer vision for flexible hand-eye coordination and proprietary force and torque sensing. The company cites advanced force control and the ability to achieve better hand-eye coordination than a human as its USP. Rizon can adapt to complex environments and automate complicated tasks, such as high-precision assembly, handling curved surfaces, etc., it says. Automation solutions based on our adaptive robots, the startup says, can be very cost-effective, easy to manage with fewer peripherals, and provide high flexibility for quick changeover. If all this works out, the robot should actually be able to compete with simpler programming aids like Wandelbots in the near future: It watches the human and imitates it. Programming aids are, of course, of particular interest to the "dumber" industrial robots. But in the end, the increasing intelligence of the cobots or Rizon is likely to reach them sooner or later. But until then, it will probably be a few years yet. The company is proud to hold 18 world records in various AI benchmarks. These would have been confirmed by various trade journals.

Now the company has unveiled a video that is strongly reminiscent of one made by Franka Emika: In Franka Emika, a robot stabbed a balloon with a pointed object, sensed its resistance and stopped in time before it burst. The Panda video:

With Flexiv, the balloon is shaved immediately:

The Rizon is currently only sold to major customers in China and the USA. The new funds are to be used to drive forward scaling - both in terms of technology and sales. Europe and South Korea are now also being targeted. So far, 100 units have been sold. At the same time, a production facility for large-scale production has apparently been set up. Rizon is likely to be in direct competition with the new top model from Han's Robotic Germany GmbH. Han's Robotic Germany GmbH plans to start sales soon and to change its name to Neura Robotics.

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The author of this blog is significantly involved in the AI/robotics project Boost-Bot project. He advises robotics companies on market/ business development and financing issues (especially in bank meetings he can score points as a "neutral" third party due to his market knowledge). He is also available to potential users for a walk-through of your production/manufacturing or by phone based on photos/descriptions at a fixed price(detail) to then make concrete proposals for the use of cobots and other robots incl. funding opportunities. Both SMEs and large companies are visited. Among other things in Bavaria a 50% investment promotion is conceivable. The standard book about cobots also comes from him. In addition, he is very familiar with the KfW-Corona programs (incl. exemptions).