Bear Robotics Invests In Smart Elevator Developer M2M to Enhance Service Robots

Looking to expand the capabilities of its service robots, Bear Robotics recently announced that it had made a strategic investment in M2M Tech, a technology company specializing in smart remotes and predictive systems for elevators. It did not share, however, how much it was investing.

Bear Robotics announced its elevator delivery robot, the Servi Lift, last year. The robot was designed to complete last-mile deliveries inside multi-story buildings such as hotels, senior living communities, ghost kitchens, hospitals, corporate campuses, and other high-rise commercial and residential real estate properties, the Redwood City, Calif.-based company said.

Bear noted that 100 trials are reserved for 2023 and broader rollouts are planned for 2024. It's betting on M2M Tech primarily because of its open and interoperable platform named ELSA (Elevator Smart Advisor, Elevator Smart Remote Management, Smart Predictive Maintenance System).

"We believe this investment will truly maximize facility efficiencies and minimize user inconvenience,” commented John Ha, co-founder and CEO of Bear Robotics. “The ELSA convergence platform developed by M2MTech provides strong security, interoperability, and connectivity advantages that will set the stage for us to scale our last-mile mobility solutions.”

Bear Robotics sees interoperability as a key component of success

In engineering Servi Lift, Bear Robotics said it wanted to bring interoperability and worked with major players in the smart elevator market such as OTIS, TKE, Mitsubishi, KONE, Hyundai and Schindler. With the expansion of urbanization, Bear Robotics noted it is bullish on the shift to robot-friendly buildings, enhanced access security, and the penetration of smart elevators in smart buildings with strong links between systems.

“With the global IoT elevator market forecasted to grow to $64 billion by 2030, it was imperative for us to invest into our close partnership with M2MTech that our engineering teams have built over the last couple of years, and to realize the synergies we believe will advance our last-mile aspirations,” said Juan Higueros, co-founder and COO of Bear Robotics.

“We are confident that this collaborative approach will generate more efficient operations for many of our existing customers and open a broad array of new opportunities that will place Bear Robotics in a position to be the world’s leading multi-story robot delivery solutions provider,” he said.