Belgian computer vision startup RoboVision eyes U.S. expansion to address labor shortage

Image credits: robo vision

Faced with labor shortages, sectors such as manufacturing and agriculture are increasingly turning to AI for automation.

Computer vision startups are jumping on the opportunity, offering a variety of point solutions for both industries. From data collection to crop monitoring and harvesting, robots with eyes are entering the fields.

However, one of the major challenges that remains is implementation. If such solutions are difficult to use, they will not be used.

Belgian startup Robovision believes it has found a way around that. The company wants to industrialize deep learning tools and make them more accessible to companies that aren’t tech companies at their core. We’ve built a “no-code” computer vision AI platform that doesn’t require software developers or data scientists to be involved in every step of the process. Robovision doesn’t make robots, but as its name suggests, it also targets robotics companies that want to develop new machines that support AI-powered automation.

In practice, this means Robovision customers can use its platform to upload data, label it, test models, and deploy it to production. The company says the model could be useful for a variety of use cases, including recognizing fruit at a supermarket scale, identifying defects in newly made electrical components, and even cutting rose stems.

Image credits: robo vision

Robovision already serves customers in 45 countries from its base in Belgium, CEO Thomas Van den Driessche told TechCrunch in an interview. Now, thanks to a recent major funding round, it is expanding into the United States, banking on interest from industrial and agribusiness customers in that huge market.

The $42 million Series A round is co-led by Belgian agricultural technology investor Astanor Ventures and Target Global. The latter is a Berlin-based investor whose participation in the fundraiser is in sharp contrast to recent reports of controversy over ties to Russian funds. Red River West, a French venture capital firm focused on funding European startups looking to expand into North America, also participated in the round.

At a post-money valuation of $180 million, this new round brings the total equity funding raised by RoboVision to $65 million, including two convertible notes. This means the founders and staff will still own more than 50% of RoboVision’s stock, chief growth officer Florian Hendricks told TechCrunch in an email.

What’s the point?

One of the challenges RoboVision faces as it expands is that working with different disciplines complicates its messaging and go-to-market strategies. On the plus side, what you learn and experiment with in one application can be applied to another. For example, RoboVision was able to apply some of the 3D deep learning he developed for disease detection in tulips to human lung disease detection during the coronavirus crisis.

“This is a double-edged sword,” founder Jonathan Barte told TechCrunch. “Striking the delicate balance between diversity and focus has been in RoboVision’s DNA.”

Its DNA comes from Robovision’s history. The company was founded by him in 2012 as a consulting studio, and it took several years before he pivoted to his B2B platform approach, which also appeals to VCs.

The first traction that RoboVision gained was in the agtech sector, which accounts for 50% of its activity, Van den Driesche said. Agtech is also the home of Astanor, co-lead investor in the Series A. The company focuses on what it describes as “impact agrifood.”

Agtech presents a huge opportunity due to the labor shortage, as well as RoboVision’s track record of helping partner ISO Group plant 1 billion tulips every year. But other areas for RoboVision are also growing faster, Van den Driesche said.

According to Van den Driessche, robovision is gaining a lot of attention in the life sciences and technology fields. For example, Hitachi uses its platform to manufacture semiconductor wafers. “I don’t think agriculture will be the largest sector in terms of size,” said Bao Y Van Cong, a partner at Target Global. “I think it will be industrial production.”

Apple’s recent decision to acquire DarwinAI, an AI startup specializing in component manufacturing supervision, shows its growing interest in the field. For Robovision founder Jonathan Berte, this is also a sign that a toolbox that can support a variety of industrialized applications makes more sense. “Apple would never do that.” [have bought that] If it were just a point solution, we would think so. ”

From Ghent to the world

Most of the convertible debt that Robovision raised in 2022 and 2023 following its transformation came from investors in the Netherlands and Belgium, but it will have to look further afield to raise the necessary capital. Ta. The amount of capital that Robovision raised in this round may have been more difficult to secure from the Benelux countries or required further dilution.

Robovision’s Belgian roots are paying off in other ways, too. “The whole early team was very smart people from Ghent University,” Berthe said. Van den His Driesche He became RoboVision’s CEO in 2022, and Berte shifted his focus to financing, partnerships, and global expansion.

Robovision’s technology evolution extends to rethinking the architecture of computer vision tools in response to customer demands. We launched Robovision Edge because certain environments require low latency and delivery speed.

In today’s marketplace, doing more with less is the key to competing globally. “I think the only way to do that is to innovate and increase productivity,” Van Conn said.