Plural leads Sunrise Robotics' $8.5M seed round
Sunrise Robotics, a startup building modular industrial robotics and AI models that makes them simple to deploy in different environments, has emerged from stealth with $8.5 million in seed funding. The investment round was led by Plural, with participation from Tapestry, Seedcamp, Tiny.vc, and Prototype Capital.
The startup is attempting to address a growing and acute labor shortage in many European manufacturing firms. These businesses currently account for 15% of Europe's GDP and employ approximately 32 million people. However, close to a third of the existing European manufacturing workforce is set to retire in the coming decade, and industrial companies are already stating that they cannot find enough young workers to replace those who are leaving. Sunrise sees industrial robots being able to take over some of the manual cutting, welding, fastening, and bolting that human workers currently perform on the production lines of these businesses.
So far, the company has signed letters of intent with approximately 10 customers, including those in supercar development, high-performance battery development, and consumer electronics manufacturing.
Carina Namih, Partner at Plural, commented on her LinkedIn post: "This is one of the strongest founding teams I've ever had the good fortune to work with. Now, more than ever, we need companies like Sunrise — building sovereignty through capability — as Europe stands up tall, determined to shape its industrial future. Sunrise shows we can solve our most urgent demographic and economic challenges not by replacing people, but by augmenting them."
For more information, visit Fortune.