Olis Robotics secure $4.1 million in funding to meet remote robot control technology demand

Olis Robotics has announced that the company has secured $4.1 million in funding. The remote monitoring, control, and error recovery technology specialists are hoping to meet the increasing demand for automation within the manufacturing industry. The funding round was led by PSL Ventures, with additional investors including Tectonic Ventures, Ubiquity Ventures, and other prominent strategic angel investors including Daniel Theobald, President and Cofounder of MassRobotics and Founder and Chairman of Vecna Robotics.

Key information:

• Olis Robotics has secured $4.1 million during a funding round led by PSL Ventures.
• The new funding is expected to help the company increase its presence in the manufacturing automation market.
• According to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), the industry is expected to see an annual growth rate in the medium to upper single-digit range.

Olis Robots’ Olis Connect system enables the monitoring, control, and troubleshooting of industrial robots, which claims to improve overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) while also solving the issue of costly robot downtime. The system is controlled in a web browser and delivered on an edge-hosted PC, which can be quickly connected to industrial robot arms and robotic cells (both old and new).

“In the midst of a global manufacturing labour crisis, companies are adopting automation in record-breaking numbers, resulting in calls from both manufacturers and integrators for robust, safe, and secure remote monitoring, diagnostics, and control solutions,” says T.A. McCann, Partner at PSL Ventures, who joins Olis Robotics’ Board of Directors. “Olis Robotics’ unique remote robot control technology answers that call; it can easily be deployed on both brand new and legacy automation, which means a dynamic and exciting market opportunity for investors.”

“Robot downtime can cost a large plant over $1 million per hour. When every minute counts, you need to leverage remote tools to react as quickly as possible no matter where you are,” says Fredrik Ryden, CEO of Olis Robotics. “Our technology is ingeniously simple to use and intensely practical in terms of its impact.”

Olis Connect claims to work across robot brands and provides full support for robots from Universal Robots and FANUC. Allegedly, the system addresses 20% of the operational stock of more than 3.5 million industrial robots deployed worldwide. As a result of the new funding, Olis is hoping to add support to additional robot brands representing more than half of all industrial robots. Additionally, the funding will hopefully help expand Olis’ partnerships with robot system integrators in North America and develop new software products.

“Being able to remotely operate industrial robots is a game changer for us and the industry as a whole,” says Brad Sparkman, President and CEO of Innovative Finishing Solutions (IFS), an Olis Robotics Partner and leading integrator of FANUC paint robots for the automotive industry. “We have deployed thousands of robots in the past two decades as a company. Given the current labour challenges, we expect a majority of those to be retrofitted with Olis technology within the next couple of years.”

“What really excites me about what Olis brings to the market is the ability to unlock company resources through remote robot access in real-time, ultimately providing better support for customers and their robotic applications,” said Silas Robertson, SVP of Sales and Marketing at Applied Automation and an Olis Robotics Partner.

Olis’ plug-and-play device allows users to configure, monitor, and manage automation remotely via any browser-capable device. If a problem were to occur with a robot, Olis Connect will send an alert to the user’s device, without having to connect to the cloud. An engineer can then use the system to perform error recovery actions remotely. This, hopefully, will result in a reduction in downtime. Additionally, three cameras provide low latency monitoring of the entire cell, which aims to enable the 24/7 measurement of key performance indicators (e.g., OEE and instant on-demand replay), to identify the root cause of any error.

According to the International Federation of Robotics’ (IFR) World Robotics Report in 2022, the industrial robot market demand increase is driven by factors including labour shortages, reshoring initiatives, and rising e-commerce demand. In 2021, 517,385 new industrial robots were installed globally, a new record, and the IFR is predicting an annual growth rate in the medium to upper single-digit range.

“In addition to the market need and opportunity, we love backing technical founders with a clear starting point and a big vision. Fredrik is one of those kinds of founders,” said McCann