Yuanda continues
The week starts with good news: Yesterday, CEO and co-founder Dr. Jens Kotlarski of Yuanda announced the continuation of the company. Together with Prof. Dr. Tobias Ortmair, one of the other two founders, and investor Philipp Georgi, they took over the company out of insolvency. "Vorwärts Robotik GmbH" was appointed as the new name in June 2022. (Photo above is screenshot from LinkedIn and shows from left: Georgi, Ortmair, Kotlarski).
Yuanda is out
It can be assumed that Yuanda is now completely out - in all consequence. The last published balance sheet relates to the 2020 financial year, when the company reported liabilities of 16 million euros. I assume that the amount was mainly owed to Yuanda. It was subject to interest and would have had to be repaid in the future. This necessity no longer exists. On the other hand, Yuanda was responsible for the production. Thus, the old production should no longer be available. However, this is not a disadvantage in times of difficult supply chains. In addition, production could be located in Germany in the future, which would again improve the image. In addition, the insolvency probably did not come as a surprise, so there was enough time to act.
Very loyal team
The robot manufacturer employs numerous skilled workers. It can be assumed that there have been attempts to poach staff from other companies since the insolvency became known. Nevertheless, the number of employees has not changed. A clear statement that the employees not only believe in the product, but that the corporate culture is also excellent.
Loss financing
With over 50 employees, the successor company to Yuanda still has considerable fixed costs. With only one product, these costs cannot be earned so quickly. This is not due to the product, but to the market, which does not yet have such a demand. In order to cover these costs, the three new shareholders will have to provide money and - this can be an asset - utilize the existing inventories. For in the 2020 balance sheet, inventories were listed at 1.3 million euros. If the warehouse still exists, it is likely to have been taken over at a favorable price.
automatica participation?
It will be interesting to see whether they will present themselves at automatica. Yuanda" was listed on an early exhibitor list. After the insolvency it is no longer. Maybe Yuanda was cancelled because a due deposit was not paid or the company is already under a new name. It would certainly make sense to participate if more products were introduced. The majority of cobot manufacturers now seem to consider three, or even four, models to make sense (Universal Robots, Kassow Robots, Neura Robotics, Doosan, Fanuc, Techman/ Omron).
Possible parallel to own case
As a management consultant, I had a possibly comparable case during the financial crisis: A biotech startup filed for insolvency shortly before its market launch. The reason was that the foreign investor, who had already invested 20 million euros, panicked and did not provide the last tranche of 2 million euros. The CEO of the startup took over the company and thus received rights to the know-how that had previously been developed with just 20 million euros for little money. Later he sold the company for a high 2-digit million amount. This shows that insolvency can always be an opportunity. Both for the new owner and for the company itself.
The video includes an English subtitle - appropriate for the not a few non-German readers.
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The author of this blog is significantly involved in the AI/robotics project Opdra. He advises robotics companies and investors on market analysis and funding/subsidies. More about him can be found here.