RobCo was founded in 2020 in Munich by Roman Hoelzl, Constantin Dresel and Paul Maroldt with a mission to bring robotic automation to the small and medium-sized manufacturers that make up the backbone of European and global industry. Traditional industrial robots are expensive, rigid and require costly integration projects, which puts them out of reach for most mid-market factories facing acute labor shortages.
RobCo's answer is a modular system. Its robots are assembled from standardized mechanical and electronic building blocks that can be reconfigured into different arm lengths and configurations to fit a given task. Paired with an intuitive, no-code software interface, a factory worker without robotics expertise can set up, program and redeploy a robot in hours rather than the weeks a conventional integration would demand.
This flexibility is the company's core differentiator. As production needs change, the same hardware can be reconfigured for a new job rather than scrapped, protecting the customer's investment. RobCo handles common industrial jobs such as machine tending, palletizing, assembly support and quality inspection, the repetitive tasks that are hardest to staff. The company often offers automation on a subscription-style commercial model to lower the upfront barrier.
RobCo positions itself as automation-as-a-service for the mid-market, combining accessible hardware, software and support. In January 2026 it raised a $100 million Series C co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Lingotto Innovation, with Sequoia Capital among the backers, to scale its platform across Europe and beyond. The investment underscores growing investor conviction that flexible, software-defined robotics can finally unlock automation for the millions of smaller manufacturers that legacy robot vendors have never served well.
