Deus Robots has raised a new investment round of $5 million from American BGV Trident Capital. The company was founded by Russian citizen with Ukrainian citizenship Ilya Ponomarev and Ukrainian entrepreneur and ATB co-owner Hennadiy Butkevych.
As Pavel Pikulin, the owner of Deus Robots, told dev.ua, the purpose of the tranche is to create a serial production of 400 robots per month in Kyiv, expand the R&D team to 80 people, and enter international markets, particularly the US, Poland, Germany, and the Czech Republic.
According to Pikulin, ATB has no relation to the investment. “Our deal and ATB are not connected,” Pikulin says, but he does not disclose the details of the deal.
However, the largest retailer in Ukraine, owned by Butkevych, is considered by Deus Robots as a potential client. “They have a lot of warehouses,” he says. However, ATB is also exploring the possibility of collaborating with global robotics giants. “We are looking for solutions that meet the necessary requirements. We are in talks with Kapelou, UISLab, GreyOrange,” ATB told dev.ua earlier.
Moreover, Pikulin told Forbes that one of the criteria for choosing an investor was Ponomarev’s experience in taking a company public (in November, his company, Trident, merged with American Lottery.com due to the SPAC procedure).
