Features Robotics
Robotiq raises $31M in funding and adds Jesse Feldman to board

January 3, 2019 – Robotiq, the Quebec-based provider of tools and software for collaborative robots, has raised $31 million in funding from global investment firm Battery Ventures. As part of the transaction, Jesse Feldman, a Battery general partner who specializes in industrial technology investments, will join Robotiq’s board.

Robotiq – which makes equipment including specially designed, plug-and-play “grippers” that can handle manufacturing tasks previously done by human hands – will use the new money for product development, international expansion and enhanced support of its partner ecosystem. The company was founded 10 years ago and spun out of a project at Laval University.

“Collaborative robotics is transforming industries today, offering low-cost, easy-to-deploy solutions that stand in stark contrast to the more-complicated, legacy robotics systems of the past,” says Samuel Bouchard, Robotiq’s co-founder and CEO. “What is amazing about these systems is how they work side-by-side with humans to improve quality, increase efficiency and minimize worker injuries. We could not be more excited to work with Battery Ventures – a firm that has demonstrated a commitment to innovation in both industrial technology and software – to take our company to the next level.”

Bouchard started Robotiq in 2008 with Vincent Duchaine and Jean-Philippe Jobin after the three met, as students, in a robotics lab at Laval. Jobin now serves as the company’s CTO, while Duchaine is a leading robotics researcher and professor at the Ecole de Technologie Superieure in Montreal.

Today, the company partners with more than 190 distributors in 48 countries and sells its products to manufacturers in industries including electronics, aerospace, automotive and others. Among those customers are global companies such as like Assa Abloy, Continental Automotive and Saint-Gobain.

“We have been tracking Robotiq and its experienced team for several years and are extremely impressed with the business the founders have built,” says Battery’s Feldman. “Robotiq’s next-generation products are improving efficiencies at companies all over the globe and, more broadly, provide a glimpse of how new, interconnected technologies including robots, sensors and software are driving a new kind of industrial revolution with huge ramifications for the global economy and workforce.”