Autonomous Robotics Startup CartkenKnown for its four -wheel robots that provide food in college complexes and through Tokyo’s stirring roads, found a new area of focus: Industrials.
Cartken co-founder and CEO Christian Barsh told Techchchan that implementing his delivery robot in industrial settings was always behind his brain as he had built a startup. When companies started arriving about using their robots in factories and laboratories, Cartken saw closely.
“We found that there is actually a real big requirement in industrial and onsite use cases,” Barsha said, who co-install the startup with other former Google engineers behind the Bookbott Project. “Sometimes there is more direct value for companies that adapt their material flow or their production flow.”
In 2023, the startup launched its first major industrial customer, German manufacturing company ZF Lifetec. Initially, the ZF Lifetec used its current delivery robot, called the Cartken Curier, who can hold 44 pounds and resemble an igloo cooler on the wheels.
“Our food delivery robot began to move the production samples, and it quickly turned into our busiest robot,” Barsh said. “When we said, hey, the real use cases are like and the real market is needed behind it, and when we began to target that segment more and more.”
At that time, Cartken was still proceeding on its delivery pavement business, including Uber Eats and Grubhab in the US college complexes and in partnership with Uber Eats and Grubhb for their final-meal delivery operations in Japan.
But early success with ZF encouraged startup founders, including Jake Steelman, Jonas Wit and Anjali Naik, to expand their business models. Barsh said that converting cartken robots into an industrial setting from food distribution was not a challenge. The AI behind the robot is trained in years of food distribution data and equipment is designed to cross various areas and weather conditions.
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This means that robots can travel between indoor and outdoor settings. And thanks to the data collected from giving food on Tokyo roads, robots are able to react and maneuvers around obstacles.
Cartken, which has raised more than $ 20 million from 468 capital, incubate funds, Vela partners and other venture firms, has begun to manufacture its robot fleet to reflect its pivot. The company released Cartken Holer earlier this year, which is a large version of the Cartken courier and can catch up to 660 pounds. The company also released the cartken runner designed for indoor delivery, and is also working on something similar to a robotic forklift.
“We have a navigation stack that is the parameter for various robot sizes,” Barsh said. “All AI and machine learning and training that went into it is like transferring other robots directly.”
Cartken recently announced that she was deepening her four -year relationship with Japanese vehicle manufacturer Mitsubishi, which originally helped the company obtain the necessary certificate to operate its delivery robot on the streets of Tokyo.
A company Melco Mobility Solutions, under Mitsubishi umbrella, announced that it must have been buying almost 100 Cartken Holer Robot For use in Japanese industrial facilities.
“We are definitely watching a lot of traction on various industrial and corporate sites, from motor vehicle companies to chemicals,” he said. “In all these companies, people usually carry goods from one building to another, whether it is by hand, on a car, or a small forklift, and it is actually what we are targeting.”
Cartken will still continue its food and consumer final-meal delivery business, but it will not expand it, Barsha said, they still test a lot for new abilities on these existing final-mile distribution routes.
