Bratislava, Slovakia, 7 December 2021 — Photoneo, the innovative smart automation
powerhouse, today announced an investment of $ 21 million from IPM Group, Across, Venture to
Future Fund, Earlybird, AI Capital and Credo Ventures as well as all investors who
participated in previous investment rounds. The newly raised capital will accelerate 3D
Sensor business and enable expansion of its fully automated fulfilment solutions for
warehouses and dark stores – called BRIGHTPICK.
Online shopping is booming. E-commerce, q-commerce, and e-grocery are all experiencing
immense pressure, fuelled by rising customer demands and dynamic customer behaviour.
These changes have been dramatic over the past two years. Additionally, a shrinking labour
force and ever-increasing labor costs translate to sector demand for automated fulfillment
solutions. These solutions will help e-commerce companies keep their customer
commitments and keep up in the hyper-competitive landscape.
“We identified a gap in the order fulfillment sector. We combined our unique technologies to
develop a first-of-its-kind end-to-end solution for fully automated fulfilment centres,” says Jan
Zizka, co-founder and CEO of Photoneo. “The potential of this next-gen warehouse automation
technology is immense as it is highly flexible and scalable, maximizing throughput with minimum
effort. It helps optimize processes, save space, and increase efficiency by 3 to 5 times compared to
manual labour.”
Branching out into the logistics sector, Photoneo also announced its new Business Unit –
BRIGHTPICK: a first and only fully-automated fulfilment solution for warehouses and grocers
to support huge throughput via smart AMRs and AI powered robotic picking. Its modular
structure can be tailored for a range of usage from Nano to Central Fulfilment Centers.
Photoneo’s futuristic vision, as well as BRIGHTPICK’s successful pilot integrations, have
attracted a large number of investors who decided to support the company’s bold strategy
through one of the largest investments into an automation startup in Europe, achieving a
total of $21 million.
“We are happy that our disruptive technologies and ability to spot market potential at the right
time, and forecast its future developments, earned the trust of our investors, convincing them that
Photoneo is primed to lead the next-generation automation of orders fulfilment,” says Jan Zizka.
The investment round was led by IPM Group, a global asset manager focusing on technology
companies, together with Across, Venture to Future Fund, Earlybird, Credo Ventures and investors
who participated in earlier rounds as well.
“Photoneo’s work and achievements are truly impressive. We believe in the company’s power to
enhance logistics and transform the automation of e-commerce processes with its
groundbreaking and much-needed solutions,” says Marian Bocek, Managing Partner at IPM
Group. “Photoneo is already a well-established leader of smart automation solutions powered by
original machine vision technology and artificial intelligence and supporting the company at this
stage means helping them embrace the future of automation completely and on all fronts.”
With its relentless R&D activities and innovative spirit, Photoneo set the standard in machine
vision and intelligent automation solutions. Its worldwide acclaimed 3D sensing technology,
proven best-in-class systems for vision-guided robotics, and novel end-to-end solutions for
fully automated fulfillment centres make next-gen automation available and affordable for
all customers who want to boost their processes with smart automation.
Photoneo equips robots with a precise sense of sight and sharp intelligence to enable them
to perceive the world in nuanced detail and perform the widest range of tasks. The quality and
uniqueness of Photoneo technologies and its top-class 5-star support foster the company’s
credibility with customers, making it the first choice for their projects worldwide.