Since its founding five years ago, the Danish robotics company TinyMobileRobots has quickly become the global leader in line marking robots for sports fields and infrastructure. Now, German industrial group STIHL has acquired nearly a quarter of the company to support its rapid international growth.
German industrial group STIHL, the world's leading manufacturer of chainsaw power tools, forestry machinery and robotic lawn mowers for prosumers and professionals, today announced a significant investment in the Danish robotics company, TinyMobileRobots. STIHL's robotic lawn mowers share a strong technical kinship with the advanced and fully autonomous line marking robots produced by TinyMobileRobots, which are intended for use in sports fields, road construction, agriculture and more.
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STIHL Group has been closely following TinyMobileRobots' rapid international growth in recent years, as the company has doubled in size each year. Recognizing the opportunity for further expansion, the corporate venture arm of the STIHL Group, STIHL Digital, acquired 23.8 percent of TinyMobileRobots, buying out the company's former state-funded investment, managed by venture capital firm Borean Innovation, which was commissioned by the Danish Government as part of an environmental innovation program. Private investor Anders Fauerskov, former co-owner of TC Group, will continue to own part of the company and remains a significant capital partner within the new circle of owners.
"We have been looking for a strong partner capable of securing further growth and development and partnering with STIHL is an absolute dream scenario. Together, we share a pool of knowledge, experience and skills, which will create great value for both companies. Right from the outset, we will also benefit greatly from STIHL's worldwide network of dealers. While maintaining our status as an independent company, we can draw on STIHL's huge market experience to accelerate our growth further. To put it mildly, I'm very, very happy with this new development," said Jens Peder Kristensen, founder and CEO of TinyMobileRobots.
In just five years, TinyMobileRobots has placed itself firmly as the world's leading supplier of line marking robots, capturing more than half the market in the United States alone. As the US is also one of STIHL's expansion markets, the partnership presents great potential and synergy for the two companies working together. TinyMobileRobots' line marking robots meet a high customer demand for more sustainable products since they are powered by batteries, instead of diesel, and use significantly lower amounts of line paint compared to competing solutions.
"We have been in close contact with TinyMobileRobots for more than two years and steadily, we have become more and more impressed with their growth rates and performance. As the chance to acquire nearly a quarter of the company arose, we were quick to strike a deal. We feel convinced that our future collective efforts will lead to an even greater share of TinyMobileRobots' fast growing and innovation driven market," said Benjamin Junghans, Director of STIHL Digital.
TinyMobileRobots has continuously improved their proprietary technology, and its line making robots are widely used by a broad array of sports clubs, municipalities, airports and, increasingly, construction and engineering companies. TinyMobileRobots has also developed a PropTech-robot for measuring large indoor areas such as high-rise construction sites, storage buildings, warehouses and production facilities, where millions of square feet otherwise have to be measured manually. By using TinyMobileRobots, these time-consuming tasks can be optimized significantly.
About TinyMobileRobots
It will take an experienced lawn keeper about five hours to mark the lines of a soccer field when performing this task for the first time. A line marking robot from TinyMobileRobots can complete the same task in only 20 minutes. This is one of many reasons why the market for these robots is growing rapidly. All over the world, sports clubs, park owners, schools and universities are realizing what robotic technology can do for them. Once their sports fields are measured and stored on an iPad, marking or retracing them is as easy as pressing a button. A TinyMobileRobot will not only carry out the task quickly and accurately, but also using considerably less paint.
Across an entire season when the grass is mowed frequently municipalities and sports clubs can save significant amounts of time using a robot time which is better spent repairing damages or improving grass quality. To date, TinyLineMarkers from TinyMobileRobots have marked almost 800.000 sports fields around the world saving three or four hours of work when marking each field for the first time. TinyMobileRobots also produces PropTech-robots for indoor use and line marking robots for airports, road construction, land surveying, engineering and building construction companies. To find out more, visit www.tinymobilerobots.com
About STIHL
The STIHL Group develops, manufactures and distributes power tools for professional forestry and agriculture as well as for garden and landscape maintenance, the construction sector and private garden owners. The product range is complemented by digital solutions and services. Products are distributed through authorized dealers and STIHL's own online-shops, which will be expanded internationally over the next few years including 41 sales and marketing subsidiaries, about 120 importers and more than 54,000 servicing dealers in over 160 countries. STIHL produces in its own plants in seven countries: Germany, USA, Brazil, Switzerland, Austria, China and in the Philippines. Since 1971 STIHL has been the world's top-selling chain saw brand. The company was founded in 1926 and is based in Waiblingen near Stuttgart. In 2020, STIHL achieved a worldwide sales volume of 4.58 billion euros with a workforce of 18,200. See more on www.stihl.com
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Robert Brownlie
Bob Gold Associates
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