Sereact GmbH, a German startup specializing in AI-driven robotics, has announced the successful raising of 25 million euros, approximately 26 million US dollars, aimed at enhancing the development of its AI models and robotic platforms.
The funding round was led by Creandum with participation from existing investors Point Nine and Air Street Capital.
Established in 2021, Sereact develops robots equipped with AI vision-language-action models that enable real-time interaction with objects without requiring extensive training or complex programming.
The company provides industrial and collaborative robots utilizing visual transformers that can recognize unknown objects and interact with them precisely, eliminating the need for pre-training. By leveraging Sereact's technology, robots can perform tasks such as picking and packing items, handling fragile goods, sorting products, managing inventory, and more in warehouse settings.
"Our technology enables robots to act based on context rather than rigidly programmed sequences," said Ralf Gulde, co-founder and CEO. "This capability allows them to adapt dynamically to tasks, achieving an unprecedented level of autonomy."
Sereact claims its use of zero-shot inference within its PickGPT model combines generative AI capabilities, large language models, and visual-AI with robotic operations to create fully autonomous robots. This integration enables robots to understand voice commands, visually identify objects, interpret unfamiliar situations, and apply advanced reasoning to execute plans.
For instance, users can instruct a robot to remove only green boxes from a specific bin and place them into another container. The robot's vision system will devise a plan to identify two green boxes, regardless of their unusual shapes and varying shades of green, then proceed to pick them up and relocate them accordingly.
Sereact currently supports a diverse range of robots across various industries, with clients including automotive manufacturers BMW Group and Daimler Trucks, online retailer Bol, and e-commerce solution providers MS Direct AG and Active Ants BV.
The funds raised will be used to develop AI solutions supporting more complex tasks beyond logistics and manufacturing. As part of its growth strategy, Sereact plans to extend support to additional robotic platforms, including mobile robots and humanoid robots.
