BGV Trident Capital, a company founded by Ilya Ponomarev and Hennadiy Butkevych (co-owner of “ATB”), has invested $5 million in the robot production startup Deus Robots, created by Pavlo Pikulin in 2018. This was reported by “Interfax-Ukraine”.
The raised investment will be used to set up serial production of robots for warehouse logistics, as well as to expand the number of developers in Ukraine and to enter international markets. It is planned that by the end of 2022, serial production will begin with a volume of about 400 robots per month. These robots will be used to automate logistics processes. Up until now, Deus Robots has been developed with personal investments from its founders. For example, Pavlo Pikulyn has already invested over $1 million of his own funds in the project. In 2021, Deus Robots released and delivered 40 robots to customers.
“In any warehouse, there are a number of tasks that are solved by people: sorting, order picking, and transportation of goods. We are developing robotic solutions specifically for these tasks. At the moment, we have three robots: for sorting goods and parcels, for transporting shelves, and for transporting pallets. In the next year, three new robot models will appear that will solve other tasks, for example, they will be able to pick up goods from shelves and racks,” said Pikulin.
According to him, the robotics market is a promising investment direction. Already, Deus Robots has orders for more than 400 robots to be delivered in 2022-2023 in its portfolio.
“One of our robots can work for approximately 18 hours a day. This exceeds the working day of a loader or warehouse manager, whose working day lasts eight hours. And add weekends, vacation, sick leave, and other administrative costs associated with hiring people (training, transportation costs, etc.),” explained Pikulin.
It is noted that the development of robotics in Ukraine is being facilitated by a partnership with the company “Nova Poshta”. DEUS Robots robots are already being tested in the logistics chain in the sorting and transportation processes of the company’s goods.
According to the creator of Deus Robots, the tangible effect of using robots can also be noticed in other areas, such as construction, in which the company also plans to develop in the future. However, the company’s main focus right now is on logistics. In a world of rapid development of e-commerce, retail, and postal services, logistics has the highest potential for robotization.
“Creating robots is one of the most promising areas of high-tech development. The replacement of manual labor with machine labor is an ancient dream of humanity, and I am glad that a Ukrainian company has taken the lead in this process. As investors, we will help with everything we can and contribute to the global success of Deus Robots,” said Managing Partner of BGV Trident Capital, Ilya Ponomarev.
