TU Delft based RoboValley and Canadian investors Chrysalix Venture Capital have announced a new robotics fund, with a target size of 100 million euros.
The RoboValley Investment Fund is aimed at driving the global robotics revolution by identifying, investing in and commercialising breakthrough robotics technologies and providing accelerated paths to market. “RoboValley has more than 170 researchers in the field, that’s the second largest network worldwide, and there’s not an area of robotics that we don’t do research in,” said Arie van den Ende, Managing Director of RoboValley. “Within the next ten years we expect to become the most important ecosystem worldwide in the field, more so than Silicon Valley. We believe that this money is the most important aspect to achieving this.”
This is the first fund dedicated to robotics for Chrysalix, which focuses primarily on the energy sector, but they are not expecting a quick return on their investment. “It’s definitely a long term plan. We expect the 100 million euros to be gone within two years, but we’re already talking about a second fund, so in practice it could mean five times that amount,” said Van Den Ende. The money will not be solely invested in Delft. “The fund will be housed in Delft, but is available for start-ups worldwide, but people are interested in moving here for it. I have appointments in my diary with 12 companies now interested in coming to Delft already,” he said. Which means more jobs in the future? “For sure. In the coming ten years we expect that there will be 15,000 – 25,000 new positions created as a direct result of the fund.”
TU Delft Robotics Institute is at the heart of the RoboValley network, and along with over 21 start-ups, plus other more established robotics companies, they collaborate with both industry and government. They are not only accelerating industry growth and enabling economic growth at the ‘robo-hub’ but addressing major societal problems such as climate change, aging societies, growing world population and food shortage too. The team are now one step closer to becoming a global player in the robotics market. “The ambition is in the name!” laughed Van Den Ende. Go to the RoboValley website or watch their film to find out more about what they do.
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