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Omnirobotic Inc. today said it has closed on $500,000 in funding. The Laval, Quebec-based company said it plans to use the financing to commercialize robots using its proprietary AutonomyOS platform for manufacturers struggling with labor shortages in high-mix production environments.

“Building autonomous machines allows Omnirobotic to address the need for skilled labor at scale,” said Francois Simard, co-founder and CEO of Omnirobotic, in a release. “This model has proven to be much more effective at deploying AutonomyOS at scale.”

“We sold in six months more machines than forecast for a year,” he added. “Manufacturers want to buy proven solutions, not automation projects. Developing standard machines that they can try before they buy proved to be the right approach to getting SMEs to adopt new automation technology.”

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Omnirobotic adds hardware, restructures

Since 2016, Simard and Omnirobotic co-founder Laurier Roy have worked to develop AutonomyOS, a platform to train robots to perform manufacturing processes on never-seen-before parts. Until 2022, the company licensed AutonomyOS to users building autonomous machines.

Last year, Omnirobotic changed its business model to become a machine builder, selling robotic equipment built on AutonomyOS. The company restructured to reflect this change in June.

Investissement Québec, as a representative of the government of Québec, supported Omnirobotic in this transition, restructuring the company’s debt, while existing strategic investors, the management, and all the remaining employees injected new liquidities.

In November, Omnirobotic signed a distribution agreement with Würth Baer Supply Co. to commercialize robots for woodworking. Simard noted that Omnirobotic plans to address additional markets with new products. 

“The new products developed by Omnirobotic using AutonomyOS are addressing well-identified skilled labor shortage in the industry,” he said. “We plan to widen our product line in the metal transformation and composite sectors in the near future.”

“Our autonomous sanding robots are already disrupting the cabinet manufacturing industry by allowing companies counting as few as six people to automate one of the hardest tasks in their shop successfully,” said Simard. “That is why we recently moved to a new 6,500 sq.-ft. [603.8-sq.-m] facility that will allow us to build up to 180 machines yearly.”

Génik invests to serve global customers

Strategic investors led Omnirobotic’s round, which also included participation from Genik and Exelpro management, as well as its own employees. It previously raised $5 million in 2020.

Génik is a vertically integrated company that has designed and manufactured automated systems for more than 30 years. The Saint-Jérôme, Québec-based member of the Excelpro Group said it serves customers around the world.

“Genik is serving some companies using autonomy,” stated Patrick Gariépy, co-founder and president of Genik Automation. “We see the future of automation in this kind of technology, which is why we decided to re-invest in Omnirobotic.”

“We are training some of our engineers on using AutonomyOS and are using it to maintain Genik as an automation leader,” he said.