Voith valued Franka Emika at 550 million euros in 2018
In April 2018, the family-owned Voith Group took a stake in Munich-based startup Franka Emika, maker of the 7-axis "Panda" robot. In the report "digital transformation Half-year report 2018"Voith stated on p. 28 that it held a 10% stake in the company.
These days, Franka Emika has published its balance sheet for 2018. In addition to the rather moderate annual loss of 5.9 million euros (the first sales only began in the spring), the capital reserve, which has increased by 55 million euros, stands out. Assuming that the other Franka shareholders Franka-Team UG and Haddadin Beteiligungs UG have not injected any money (from where?), the increase in the reserve should come from the new shareholder. If Voith paid 55 million euros for 10%, Franka was therefore valued at 550 million euros. (Incidentally, Voith received 1.149 billion euros for the sale of its Kuka shares).
At the end of 2018, Franka Emika still had financial assets of 32.5 million euros and cash and cash equivalents of 18 million euros.
If Franka Emika was valued at 550 million euros in the spring of 2018 and has developed well since then (the launch of a real industrial robot with a payload of up to 10 kg is expected in a few months), the company could soon be valued at 1 billion euros and thus belong to the rare group of "unicorns". (Addendum in July 2020: Whether or not the new robot mentioned will come does not seem to be certain in the meantime. In addition, the Panda is currently being offered at a very low price. This and Corona make a high three-digit valuation seem unlikely at the moment. However, Franka allegedly wants to sell 1 million robots p.a. in a few years).
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