German robot startup RobCo hits $1 billion valuation, CEO moves to US

By Toby Sterling

AMSTERDAM, Oct 5 (Reuters) - German robotics company RobCo reached a valuation of $1 billion on Monday, it said, adding that CEO Roman Hoelzl has relocated to the United States to focus on its fastest-growing market.

The Munich-based business will retain assembly and manufacturing in Germany while assembling some products for the US market in Austin, Texas.

"The (US) market is larger in terms of absolute size and it's growing faster than Europe," Hoelzl told Reuters, noting that about 70% of the company's business is in Europe. 

RobCo said the $1 billion valuation was based on a new sale of shares after raising $100 million of capital in January, with investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia and Lingotto. 

Monday's transaction was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, which said it involved the sale of $40 million of shares.

"With this round we've now raised close to $200 million in total," Hoelzl said.

The transaction allowed employees to sell shares and brought in new investors including Cherry Ventures and the European Tech Collective.

The company joins a small but growing group of European robotics startups valued at $1 billion or more and that are targeting the emerging humanoid and human-like robot market. Rivals include NEURA Robotics and Agile Robots in Germany as well as Humanoid in the UK.

Founded in 2020, RobCo makes robots used in manufacturing. It said it is preparing for the March launch of Alfie, a two-armed, self-learning robot designed to handle industrial tasks that cannot easily be performed with traditional automation.

Hoelzl said that several customers have already installed a prototype of Alfie.

(Reporting by Toby SterlingEditing by Jan Harvey and David Goodman)