Singapore robotics startup gets funding from Singtel and Temasek unit

Photo credit: Sesto Robotics

By the end of this year there’ll be 1.3 million industrial robots in factories around the world – and that’s the boom one startup in Singapore is riding.

Five-year-old Sesto Robotics today announced it has pocketed US$2.9 million series A funding to help it conceive new robots and expand its reach beyond clients in Singapore and China.

The startup’s bots don’t look as slick as Pepper or as athletic as Boston Dynamics’ doggos, but that’s because its autonomous creations are meant for grunt work in factories, particularly in semiconductor manufacturing.

Photo credit: Sesto Robotics

Built in Singapore, the robots are designed to automate traditionally labor-intensive material handling processes in factories, according to a spokesperson. “Covering tasks such as transporting work-in-progress materials between work stations to movement of bulk materials in warehouses,” the spokesperson said.

Such tasks, labelled “predictable physical activities’ by a McKinsey report on robots taking over jobs, are the top category for automation.

Sesto now has 30 employees.

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Today’s funding, from Singtel Innov8 and Temasek subsidiary Heliconia Capital Management, involves Sesto being spun out from its parent company Hope Technik, the Singapore firm that makes an array of industrial and commercial equipment, including emergency response vehicles for the Singapore Civil Defence Force, drones, and exoskeletons.

Hope Technik is perhaps best known for its SUV-sized firefighting vehicle, the Red Rhino:

Photo credit: Hope Technik

In 2016, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong hailed the company as a great example of Singapore’s new wave of entrepreneurs in all kinds of business sectors.