60 Million Euro Investing in Service Robots

Bruno Bonnell, founder and former CEO of Infogames Entertainment, SA,  founder of French Federation of service robots SYROBO and actual CEO of Robopolis just launched a 60 million Euro (80 million USD) investment fund named Robolution Capital to support the development of Robotics in Europe. It is the First European investment fund dedicated to service robot and will invest in 30 startups, ranging from 300,000 to $3 million for each. The fund is supported by Orkos Capital and CDC Enterprises, a public group and long term investor serving general interest and the economic development of the country.

Based on prognosis of the International Federation of Robotics, IFR, the funders expect an extremely strong growth of up to 100 billion dollars on the horizon of 2020 and describe service robotics as one of the major economic drivers of this century.  Investments will be achieved in start-ups working in the field of personal robotics (robot cleaners, vacuums, surveillance, etc.) and professional robots (security, humanoids, UAVs, robotic platforms, telepresence).  About 400 companies working in service robotics have been identified so far.
The new robot fund is good news for French robot companies with strong sales records and growth ambitions. Many of them will be visible at the Innorob 2012 Exhibition in Lyon in March to attract investors and future customer.

Some exhibotors at INNOROBO 2012

Innorob was founded in 2011 by SYROBO.

Bruno Bonnell’s company Robopolis is a distributor of personal and domestic robots in France and in Europe (2500 distributors). The company made 54 million euros in revenues in 2011 (70 million dollars). Its big seller is the iRobot Roomba vacuum robot. Orkos Capital, a French private equity management company created in 2006,  is mainly investing in ICT company sector.  CDC Enterprises is part of Caisse des Dépôts which is devoting 1 billion Euros over 3 years to the development of medium-sized French businesses.