STMicroelectronics, Fondazione ENEA Tech Biomedical and SpotInvest have acquired stakes in Italian robotics company Oversonic Robotics, which plans to use the investment to expand production, develop applications for its RoBee humanoid robot and strengthen its operations in the United States. Financial terms and the size of the stakes were not disclosed.
Oversonic designs and manufactures cognitive humanoid robots for industrial and healthcare environments. Its RoBee platform is already being used by companies and in experimental hospital programmes, according to the company. STMicroelectronics is expected to contribute semiconductor technology, manufacturing expertise and support for industrial applications. Fondazione ENEA Tech Biomedical will support the development of humanoid robots for healthcare settings, while SpotInvest, an investment vehicle associated with entrepreneur Marco Setti, will focus on potential applications in food industry services and process automation.
The investors join existing Oversonic shareholders and partners including Comat, Datalogic and AVM SGR through its Cysero fund. Oversonic plans to continue developing RoBee’s artificial intelligence-based capabilities and its ability to work alongside employees and other robotic systems. The company also intends to expand its workforce and production capacity and increase the use of the platform in manufacturing and healthcare.
“The entry of new shareholders represents an important step in Oversonic’s growth path. We are building an ecosystem capable of generating mutual value between technology, industry, and concrete applications,” declare Fabio Puglia, Chairman, and Paolo Denti, CEO of Oversonic. “With RoBee, we are bringing humanoid robotics into real environments, from factories to healthcare, transforming an advanced technological platform into an application infrastructure serving the industry, operators, and production systems. Italy remains our technological and industrial base, but Europe and the United States are the markets where the next dimensional leap will be played. Today we have the resources, the partners, and the trajectory to position ourselves as an international point of reference in the cognitive humanoids market.”
“Automation, AI and robotics are key enablers of the future of manufacturing. Our commitment to advancing these technologies reflects our focus on improving adaptability, safety and efficiency, while helping shape the next generation of humanoid robotics for industrial use. By deploying these technologies in our own operations and working with robotics customers globally, we are contributing our industrial expertise to the development of solutions for the manufacturing of tomorrow,” said Fabio Gualandris, President, Quality, Manufacturing and Technology, STMicroelectronics.
