Trener Robotics, a developer of artificial intelligence software for industrial robots, has raised $32 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Engine Ventures and IAG Capital Partners. The round included participation from Cadence and Geodesic Capital through Nikon’s NFocus Fund. The company’s total funding to date exceeds $38 million.
The company plans to use the new capital to expand research and development at its T-Labs division, develop additional robot skills, recruit talent globally, and broaden its market and partner network.
Trener Robotics develops Acteris, a robot-agnostic software platform designed to enable operators to program industrial robots using natural language rather than traditional code. The system translates conversational inputs into executable automation tasks and is trained on visual, haptic, language, and action data. According to the company, the platform allows robots to adapt to variations in parts and production environments in real time.
Acteris includes features such as part identification through machine vision, motion optimization, collision avoidance mechanisms, and real-time production monitoring. The platform is designed to operate on existing industrial equipment and is intended to improve performance through continuous feedback from production environments.
Dr. Asad Tirmizi, co-founder and chief executive officer of Trener Robotics, said the company aims to replace procedural robot programming with a control system that supports a library of production-ready skills. “We’re fundamentally changing this – transforming robots into intelligent, adaptable teammates by replacing procedural programming with a control system that supports a growing library of production-ready skills,” he said.
In 2025, the company reported collaborations with more than 15 integration and solution partners across Europe and the United States. Acteris has been integrated with robots from manufacturers including ABB, Universal Robots and FANUC.
Reed Sturtevant, general partner at Engine Ventures, said the firm had identified automation bottlenecks as a key challenge in the sector. “When we co-led Trener Robotics’ seed round, we saw a team with a clear vision to solve one of automation’s biggest bottlenecks,” he said.
The company cited market research indicating that the flexible automation market is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 14.3%, driven by labor shortages, demand for high-mix production and rising operating costs. Dennis Sacha, partner at IAG Capital Partners, said the company’s platform provides a path for expanding automation capabilities beyond applications such as CNC machine tending.
Trener Robotics was founded in 2024 by Tirmizi and Dr. Lars Tingelstad, who previously held roles in robotics research and development. Tirmizi previously worked at Vicarious and contributed to robotics and haptics initiatives at ByteDance. Tingelstad served as an associate professor of robotic production at NTNU.
The company received the Machine Tool Innovation Award at EMO Hannover in 2024 and was selected as a winner in the ABB AI Startup Challenge, an initiative aimed at advancing robotics and artificial intelligence technologies.
