Odense

At automatica it was hard to miss the presence of the Danish robotics industry. Especially the robotics cluster of Odense was prominently represented, both in a pavilion and in the startup arena. During the event Odense robotics signed a partnership with Pittsburgh Robotics Network, a key hub in the US. And after an intensive pitch process and questioning from an expert panel, Aim Robotics emerged as the winners of the 2023 Odense Investor Summit. In this report Marco van der Hoeven from Rocking Robots discusses this with Søren Elmer Kristensen, CEO Odense Robotics and Martyna Waliszewska, Investment Manager at Invest in Odense.

This year’s Odense Investor Summit held at automatica, the world’s leading smart automation and robotics exhibition in Munich, showcased the potential future of the robotics industry with nine strong cases vying for recognition. After an intensive pitch process and questioning from an expert panel, Aim Robotics emerged as the winners of the 2023 Odense Investor Summit.

Denmark and the United States are reaching across the Atlantic to foster mutual growth in the burgeoning robotics industry. The partnership, announced at the automatica trade fair in Munich, between Odense Robotics, Denmark’s national robotics cluster, and the Pittsburgh Robotics Network, a key hub in the US, is designed to bolster both nations’ standing in the sector.

For the first time ever, as a part of Odense Investor Summit, a panel of experts will listen to the stream of pitches, ask critical questions, and ultimately choose the winner of this year’s Odense Investor Summit. This will happen at the world’s leading smart automation and robotics exhibition automatica, held in Munich, Germany at the end of June. The investor summit takes place at the Startup Arena hosted by FundingBox. On the day, you can expect to see the future of the robotics industry with strong cases that should be on the radar of anyone with an interest in the industry, specifically investors.

European Robotics Forum 2023, which will take place next week in Odense, Denmark, is fast approaching a record number of 1,000 participants. As the ODEON venue is not big enough to host all the extra sessions next to the main event, the Concert Hall (Koncerthuset0 next door will be used as well.

Early-stage robotics startups looking for help can now apply now to the Odense Robotics StartUp Fund, offering funding, mentoring and incubation to ambitious robotics and drone startups from Denmark and abroad.

The drone company Dronamics has contracted a new partnership with UAS Denmark Test Center hosted at Odense’s Hans Christian Andersen Airport. The airport will host the Dronamics Black Swan cargo aircraft, which will enable same-day delivery service and provide access to more than 6 million people within a 1-hour drive of the airport. The expansion sees the Dronamics European Droneport network grow to a total of 42 locations in 14 European countries.

The unique ecosystem of Danish robotics, centered around Odense on the island of Funen, is taking off, building on years of early successes that has caught the attention of international investors. Since 2015, the combined enterprise value of Danish robotics startups is up 3.7 times, reaching 1.1 billion euros in early 2022.

Rocking Robots recently travelled to the Danish city of Odense to visit several institutions and companies that are part of the very successful Robotics Cluster. This photo series gives an impression of the diversity of this robot-ecosystem.

In a few weeks, construction will begin on state-of-the-art joint headquarters for Universal Robots and Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR) in Odense, Denmark. The building will accommodate up to 600 employees and will be the world’s largest cobot and autonomous mobile robot (AMR) Hub. Groundbreaking will take place on 20 April with completion expected at the start of 2024.