Den Bosch, The Netherlands. 23 January 2020.
Dutch clean energy conglomerate Koolen Industries has invested in Dutch robotics startup Aziobot to help fund an expansion of its team ahead of its introduction of autonomous cleaning robots to the market.
Dutch clean energy conglomerate Koolen Industries has invested in Dutch robotics startup Aziobot to help fund an expansion of its team ahead of its introduction of autonomous cleaning robots to the market.
The group’s investment comes less than two years after Chairman/CEO Kees Koolen first invested in Aziobot to help the team develop its first artificial intelligence (AI) product; an autonomous floor scrubber robot dubbed SB2 that can be used in retail, supermarkets, hospitals and other industries.
“Aziobot has moved quickly through a truly challenging artificial intelligence development phase, and they’ve come up with these seemingly simple but actually very complex machines. I am truly impressed, not least because the technology they’ve developed can be applied in so many different areas of industry,” said Koolen.
Aziobot’s CEO, Sarthak Yadav, is convinced that Koolen’s latest investment will come with additional benefits.
“Working with Koolen during this period, when our main focus has been product development, has opened our eyes to our software’s potential, not only within our initial target sectors but also in many other fields. Being a part of this clean energy conglomerate will help us realise our full potential as we continue to focus on research and development,” said Yadav.
Koolen believes Aziobot will both contribute to and participate in Koolen Industries’ rapid growth in the years ahead.
“I have particularly high hopes about how Aziobot’s software can help drive the energy transition. Automation will be a vital part of all sorts of technological discoveries that will help us ensure that everyone has access to both clean energy and to ever more user-friendly solutions. It goes without saying that Sarthak and his team’s unrivalled autonomous software and artificial intelligence expertise will be invaluable for our group.”
Autonomous driving
“The SB2 is basically a self-driving vehicle, and as it is a floor scrubber it will allow Aziobot’s autonomous software to be tested within safe environments, away from traffic,” said Yadav.
“The market may not be ready for self-driving cars just yet, not least because regulation often lags behind the rapid evolution of technology. But we can think of many other forms of autonomous solutions that will make people’s lives simpler, both here in Europe and across the world. This will ensure our emergence as a leading developer of this kind of technology, so when the market and the regulatory environment is right, we will be ready to support automotive developments too.”
Super B batteries
The SB2 is powered by lithium batteries from Koolen Industries subsidiary Super B, which has supported Aziobot from the start.
“Thanks to the Super B batteries, we are far ahead of our competitors. We can run SB2 for four hours on a single charge, and it only takes an hour of fast-charging before our helpful robot is ready to return to work, so although it is compact the SB2 can clean large areas,” said Yadav.
“Having discovered what Super B’s batteries can do, we will obviously deepen our relationship further as we work together on the development of future products and services.”
About Aziobot
Aziobot is all about simplicity. Having developed cleaning robots for businesses, the company will continue to make autonomous technology that is as simple to operate as a smartphone. Both the hardware and the software development takes place in-house. As a consequence, Aziobot is in a position to make autonomous technology available to most industries, thereby making business owners and employees’ day-to-day operations both simpler and more efficient.
In 2017 Aziobot joined Europe’s first AI accelerator program, from Rockstart.
About Koolen Industries
The mission of Koolen Industries is to enable everyone to contribute to the energy transition. By using clean energy from wind and the sun, and making sure it is available whenever you need it, they will provide consumers with an autonomous life that is independent of the grid.
Koolen Industries builds and invests in a group of companies that together will ensure renewable energy is always be available, whenever and wherever it is needed. Reliable and safe. Made possible by ingenious software.
During 2019, Koolen Industries invested in Super B (lithium batteries), Floading Energy (charging infrastructure), Skoon Energy (cloud platform for renting mobile energy storage and mobile energy storage containers), Elestor (flow batteries), Hardt Hyperloop (hyperloop technology) and BonGo Solar (solar panel installations).