A3 names 10 finalists in Cowen Startup Challenge

Ten cutting-edge startups will compete for a $10,000 prize in “The Cowen Startup Challenge, Automate to Outperform,” June 7 at the Automate 2022 Show and Conference, North America’s largest automation and robotics showcase hosted by the Association for Advancing Automation (A3). Sponsored this year by Cowen, a multinational, independent investment bank and financial services company, the competition will honor young companies and their entrepreneurs driving innovations in robotics, machine vision, artificial intelligence and other automation technologies.

The 10 finalists—all of which launched under five years ago and have raised less than $5 million since creation—will each pitch their technology solution to a panel of industry expert judges during the June 7 finals. As finalists, they have already won a complimentary exhibit space at Automate to engage with the expected 20,000 attendees.

“Our startup challenge at Automate has grown to be a favorite event, where the latest innovations showcase where automation is heading today,” said Alex Shikany, vice president of membership and business intelligence at the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), which organizes Automate. “As we’ve seen from previous winners such as Soft Robotics, Innovative Mechatronic Systems B.V. and Apellix, each of these startups show great promise, and while only one will win the $10,000, they will all come away from Automate with new contacts and potential customers eager to take advantage of their offerings.”

Finalists include:

• Aivero (Booth #4353), is a Scandinavian startup founded in 2017 with a mission to democratize automation by simplifying robotic control so that anyone can deploy and operate them.
• Covision Quality (Booth #4453), which automates and scales visual inspection with unsupervised machine learning technology.
• FLX Solutions (Booth #4354), whose first product is a patented 1” snake-like robot that is able to fit into spaces humans cannot easily access to inspect, map, and perform any required maintenance.
• INNOCISE GmbH (Booth #4454), which produces special polymers capable of handling components from several meters to less than 10 microns with the highest precision and maximum efficiency.
• InOrbit (Booth #4355), which offers a cloud-based robot management and analytics platform that enables robotics companies and their customers to develop, deploy and operate smart robots at global scale.
• Neurocle Inc. (Booth #4455), a company that incorporates deep learning technology into the field of computer vision.
• NINOX 360 (Booth #4356), offers the benefits of automation with minimal infrastructure with its poka-yoke (a.k.a. error proofing) systems and vision-based inspections.
• Quotebeam Inc. (Booth #4456), a marketplace for automation parts, quotes, and collaboration.
• Scalable Robotics Inc. (Booth #4357), an industrial robotics startup with human-robot interaction techniques that enable people who know their process to intuitively show a robot what needs to be done.
• Voaige (Booth #4457), which is building re-programmable Operating AI for robotic arms to automate complex tasks in logistics and manufacturing.

A3 hosts a number of industry-leading events, including Automate Preview Series (Ongoing), the Automate Show & Conference (June 6-9, 2022, in Detroit), The Autonomous Mobile Robot & Logistics Week (October 10-13, 2022, in Boston) and The Vision Show (October 11-13, 2022, in Boston).