OnRobot gets funding from Summit Partners, acquires Purple Robotics

OnRobot has acquired Purple Robotics, developers of vacuum grippers specifically for cobots.

The acquisition takes place two months after the OnRobot merger of three robotics companies from the United States, Hungary and Denmark that created one global player with a focus on the market for industrial robot accessories.

With the acquisition of Purple Robotics, OnRobot can now offer its partners a dual vacuum gripper. Purple Robotics was established by the three Danish “super-nerds” Lasse Kieffer, Henrik Tillitz Hansen and Peter Nadolny Madsen, all of whom have a background as product developers at Universal Robots. OnRobot is now infusing this expertise into its own existing R&D department at its headquarters in Odense.

“It has been really good fun to create a brand new robotics company and to disrupt the market for vacuum grippers with our invention,” Lasse Kieffer said. “It makes a lot of sense and creates significant synergy to join forces with OnRobot, which has already created a strong, global sales organization. This means that we can focus 100 percent on developing the world’s coolest robotics products. Together, we can go far.”

It takes less than 30 minutes to install the Purple Robotics gripper on a robot and start it up. The vacuum gripper is able to gently and efficiently handle items of many different dimensions, weights, materials and shapes. The lifting capacity is 10 kilograms (22 lbs) and the robot gripper is designed for use on a wide range of light-weight robots from all robot manufacturers.

“It must be easily conceivable to automate even small production batches,” said Enrico Krog Iversen, CEO, OnRobot. “Otherwise, robot technology is not a good investment. This is why we hand pick the best and most user-friendly robot products and integrate them in OnRobot. We are now one step closer to our vision of offering ‘one-stop-shopping’ for buyers of robot accessories. Purple Robotics will definitely not be our last acquisition. We have our eye on a number of other interesting companies around the world.”

OnRobot has also recently welcomed an international investor to the ownership roster – the American venture fund Summit Partners.