Known for its six-wheeled robotics delivering meals through university campuses and the bustling streets of Tokyo, autonomous robot startup Kurtken has found a new area of focus: industrialists.
Cartken co-founder and CEO Christian Bersch told TechCrunch that applying delivery robots to industrial environments is always deep in his mind when building a startup. Cartken looked closely as businesses began reaching out to use robots in factories and labs.
“What we found is that there is actually a really big need for industrial and on-site use cases,” says Bersch, who co-founded the startup along with other former Google engineers behind the Bookbot project. “Sometimes there [been] More direct value for companies optimizing material flows and production flows. ”
In 2023, the startup landed its first major industrial client, the German manufacturer ZF Lifetec. Initially, ZF Lifetec used existing distribution robots. It can hold 44 pounds and is called the Kurtken Courier, which resembles an igloo cooler on the wheels.
“Our food delivery robots began moving production samples and quickly became our busiest robot,” says Bersch. “That’s when we said, hey, there’s real use cases and real market needs behind it. That’s when we started targeting that segment more and more.”
At the time, Kurtken was still ahead of its delivery sidewalk business, including Lock, a partnership with Uber Eats and Grubhub, for its last mile delivery operations in the US college campus and Japan.
However, early success at ZF encouraged startup founders, including Jakestelmann, Jonas Witt and Anjalinik. Switching Kurtken’s robots from food delivery to industrial environments was not a big challenge, Belsch said. The AI behind the robot is trained with years of food delivery data, and the devices are designed to cross a variety of terrain and weather conditions.
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This means that the robot can move between indoor and outdoor settings. Also, thanks to data collected from serving meals on Tokyo Street, the robots can respond and pilot them around obstacles.
Having raised more than $20 million from 468 Capital, Incubate Fund, Vela Partners and other venture companies, Cartken began building a robotics fleet to reflect its pivot into industry. The company released Kurt Kenhauler earlier this year. This is a larger version of the Kurtken Courier, which can hold up to 660 pounds. The company has also released a Kurtken Runner, designed for indoor delivery, working on something similar to a robot forklift.
“We have a navigation stack that can be parameterized for different robot sizes,” says Bersch. “All the AI and machine learning and training that comes into it is like transferring directly to other robots.”
Kurtken recently announced that it has deepened its four-year relationship with Japanese automaker Mitsubishi. This initially helped me obtain the certifications needed to operate a delivery robot on the streets of Tokyo.
Melco Mobility Solutions, a Mitsubishi-affiliated company, has announced that it will purchase nearly 100 Kurtken transport robots for use in industrial facilities in Japan.
“We see a lot of traction in a variety of industries and corporate sites, from automotive companies to pharmaceuticals and chemicals,” he said. “All of these businesses usually have people moving from one building to another. Whether it’s a hand, a cart or a small forklift, that’s really what we’re targeting.”
Cartken will still continue its food and consumer last mile delivery business, but it has not expanded, Bersch added that they are testing a lot of new features on existing last mile delivery routes.
This work was revised on July 21st, and updated Cartken’s hood delivery robot has six wheels instead of four.
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