The founding is completed. In retrospect, how do you view the development of NODE Robotics, from the first idea to today?
Technologically, the first ideas go back about five years. As Fraunhofer employees, my co-founders and I had recognised the potential of the technology early on through our experience from many projects with industrial partners. Following this, we focused on evaluating new approaches from the research area for industrial suitability and developing them further.
With the successful acquisition of EXIST research transfer funding and the onboarding of a further investor, the course was set for the foundation and market entry. However, the fact that many valleys had to be crossed in between should of course not go unmentioned.
Why do you start a company at such a difficult time? Was it out of the question for you to take this big step only after the pandemic?
Actually, this was never an issue for us. We were already convinced of the market and our technology before the pandemic began, and this has not changed as a result of the pandemic.
On the contrary, the pandemic has brought the robotics and automation industry further into focus. Of course, we are also feeling the current uncertainties and reluctance of many companies in some places. We are now benefiting in this phase from the fact that we were able to put NODE on a solid financial footing even before the pandemic began.
We are also fortunate that, as a pure software startup, we can continue to develop well from the home office.
What are the next steps of the startup?
We want to launch our first products on the market in 2021. Accordingly, we are currently building up the operations & support team. In parallel, we also have an intensive development roadmap for further developments and new products ahead of us. In addition, as a freshly founded startup, we will set up appropriate processes and structures to build up the company. So we will not be bored.
