Invert Robotics has just closed another big fundraising round, this time bringing in $US8.8 million ($13m) at a post-money valuation of around $35m.
The Christchurch-based startup has made a splash over the past couple of years with its robots that can climb - and clean - non-magnetic services such asstainless steel vats, or glass or aluminum surfaces.
The competition has traditionally used magnets for climbing. Invert Robotics uses suction to create a vacuum to "climb like a snail, not a monkey."
Its robots are now being used clean equipment by seven of the 10 largest dairy companies in the world, including Fonterra, Synlait and Murray Goulburn.
Chief executive Neil Fletcher - a Tait Electronics alumnus - says Invert Robotics is now well-established in the food and beverage market, with the division able to fund itself.
The new funding will be used for a push into the chemicals industry, where Invert hopes companies like Dow Chemical, BP, BASF and Shell will use its robots for cleaning hazardous materials off equipment at their industrial plants.
Robots are often billed as a threat to jobs.
In the case of Invert's expansion into chemicals, Fletcher says his company's climbing robots will tackle assignments that are hazardous work for people in an environment that can be toxic, and where explosions do sometimes happen.
"Companies across a variety of industries will be able to deploy climbing robots to make asset inspection easier and more effective to avoid life-threatening situations for their workers, their communities and their consumers."
Why the chemical industry. Fletcher sees a gap in the market.
The CEO expects direct competition to arrive, but he says the main alternatives today are human inspectors or people using drones - but he paints the latter as inferior, saying a robot on the surface can carry out a more in-depth inspection.
He also sees a much bigger market than dairy. The fifty largest chem players are all multi-billion dollar companies, he says.
A business plan was pitched to a series of "smart money" investors, or those who can bring industry knowledge to the table as well as cash, Fletcher says.
Two came on board.
The round was led by Silicon Valley-based ag-tech and life sciences venture capital outfit Finistere Ventures (which now holds a 20 per cent stake) with support from another Silicon Valley VC, Yamaha Motor Ventures - an offshoot of the Japanese giant - which took an 11 per cent stake.
It was the second time Yamaha has invested in Kiwi robotics; last year it tipped $12m into Tauranga's Robotics Plus, which is developing automated technology to combat the shortage of human fruit pickers.
Invert Robotics usually swoops in with its own robots for a dairy plant job, but plans to lease gear to players in the highly-regulaed chemicals market.
A number of existing investors also chipped in, including Crown agency NZVIF, which has lifted its holding to 12 per cent in the process.
Invert Robotics - which had its genesis in research carried out at the University of Canterbury - is also a rare win for Powerhouse Ventures, which did not participate in the round but maintains an 8 per cent stake.
The startup had raised around $10m before its latest round and has 40 staff, with 15 in Europe and the balance in Christchurch.
Fletcher says numbers should increase to 60 over the next few months.
Some of the new funding will go into a sales team to develop its business in the US, but a lot will go into R&D - which is carried out in Christchurch, meaning most of the new positions will be local.
