Aspiring Vancouver-based commercial robotics integrator NorBot Technology has secured $1 million CAD in pre-seed funding.
The news: NorBot aims to act as “the bridge” between the world’s top robotics platforms and Canadian businesses, helping the latter source, integrate, deploy, and manage robots across their operations through its proprietary fleet-management and digital twin software. The startup announced its pre-seed financing on Thursday. It was funded by a group of undisclosed Canadian tech founders, operators, and investors. NorBot plans to use the capital to develop its platform and support its team as it pursues its first deployments next month.
The young startup was founded this June by CEO David Gratton, a digital product leader and ecosystem builder with experience in AI, Leon Ng, a repeat entrepreneur who has been working at the intersection of tech and real estate, and Douglas Lui, co-founder and managing partner of Misfit Ventures.
From the source: “Any robot deployed directly from a foreign supplier will result in most of that data leaving your business and the country by default … We think Canadian operational data should stay under Canadian control, and we’re building the fleet layer that makes that true,” Gratton told BetaKit over email.
RELATED: A&K Robotics closes $8-million Series A round to put self-driving pods in airports
The context: Ottawa-based Dominion Dynamics has set its sights on becoming a defence tech integrator, connecting separate hardware and software into a single, working system it can sell to clients. NorBot hopes to do a version of this for the commercial robotics industry, where building robots is one challenge, and putting them to work in the real world is another entirely. According to Gratton, figuring out which robot meets your needs can be tough given the number of options available. Dealing with foreign suppliers and figuring out how to integrate different systems is also no cinch, the CEO said.
Final thought: NorBot sees an opportunity to help domestic businesses in logistics, real estate, healthcare, and hospitality choose and deploy cleaning, delivery, and security robots, while also ensuring that the data they generate stays in Canada. Gratton said NorBot has already closed supplier and partnership agreements with four top robotics manufacturers and paid pilots with one of Canada’s largest commercial landlords and HME, BC’s largest medical and healthcare equipment distributor. The company said it’s also in conversation with First Nations to bring its tech to more regions across the country.
Feature image courtesy NorBot Technology.