Dutch Robotics Firm Raises €10 Million to Expand Warehouse Automation Across Europe
Smart Robotics, a Netherlands-based developer of AI-powered pick-and-place systems for warehouses, has closed a €10 million Series A funding round led by Rotterdamse Havendraken, Innovation Industries, and Dutch family office Ernij Next. The company will use the capital to expand operations across Europe and advance its AI software.
The company has deployed more than 120 systems across 15 countries in food, pharma, and apparel sectors. Its cobots operate at 99.5% uptime and process up to 1,000 picks per hour.
One Billion Picks in Production
Smart Robotics reached a milestone of one billion successful picks in live warehouse environments, making it the first European company to do so. That volume of operational data directly shapes the company's competitive position.
The data feeds continuous improvement of the AI systems. More picks mean more examples for the software to learn from, particularly in handling the variability of different items, packaging, and warehouse conditions that traditional automation struggles with.
Technology and Market Position
The platform combines robotic hardware with proprietary AI software designed to handle high product variability with low failure rates. The product suite covers item picking, palletizing, mixed case palletizing, and depalletizing.
Heico Sandee, founder and co-CEO/CTO, said the company's advantage comes from "the combination of proprietary AI software, over a decade of hands-on deployment experience in warehouse environments, and a team spanning AI engineering, robotics integration, and logistics operations."
Robin Slakhorst of Rotterdamse Havendraken said Smart Robotics' "ability to leverage large-scale operational data to continuously improve performance gives them a strong and defensible position in this rapidly growing market."
Operations professionals looking to understand how AI applies to warehouse automation can explore AI for Operations. Those managing supply chain functions may find value in the AI Learning Path for Supply Chain Managers.
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