• The oversubscribed round of £608,000 was led by Fuel Ventures 
• Other notable investors include Dhyan Ventures, Atlas Ventures, APX, Prequel Ventures, and angels from Venture Together and Alma Angels 
• The two cofounders have between them 3 PhDs and over 20 years of related industry leadership experience 

LONDON, 31st January, 2023 – PHINXT Robotics, a London-based startup, has raised over £600,000 for their pre-seed round from top VCs and angels, including the exited founder of autonomous systems startup Wayve, Amar Shah and founder of Dhyan Ventures. Other notable investors include the lead Fuel Ventures, and Atlas Ventures, APX, Prequel Ventures, and angels from Venture Together and Alma Angels. 

Currently less than 10% of warehouses are able to adopt robotic automation due to the issues of high cost, high complexity and long lead times. PHINXT’s cloud-based platform helps small to medium-sized warehouses compete with larger logistics companies by increasing their automation and adoption of robotics. The funds will be used to field test their first product and run it successfully in a first group of customers’ warehouses. 

PHINXT has already patented its decentralised edge computing technology, which enables ultra-simplified deployments that require minimal IT infrastructure costs. PHINXT’s software also gives SMEs the the flexibility to scale up and down the number of robots as needed, as opposed to the current more rigid robotic systems. 

Cofounder and CEO, Yanwen Chen, PhD, said,

“Robotics automation has become a must for businesses that want to stay competitive in the logistics and manufacturing industries, however, it is still something that only large companies are able to afford. We are changing that and, thanks to our tech, we plan to bring the advantages of robotics automation to many SMEs across Europe in the next couple of years.”

Tom Hibbard, Principal at Fuel Ventures, said,

“PHINXT is a deep tech company that also has short-term commercial potential. They are one of the rare startups that has deeply technical founders who are extremely focussed on their customers and their needs. We’re really pleased to be backing this team.”

Amar Shah, founding partner at Dhyan Ventures, said,

“To benefit from automation in warehouses, robots need sophisticated real-time coordination. PHINXT delivers exactly that without the need of a large engineering or research team, helping the smaller players stay competitive amongst giant organisations. As a founder in the robotics space, I can see the vast potential for their technology and am excited to join them on their journey to scale.”  

The cofounders both have deep technical and industry experience. 

Yanwen Chen has two PhDs in Computer Science focused on logic models for cyber-physical systems and large-scale robotics synchronisation. She designed and patented the technology, along with the underlying mathematical model, that enables decentralised traffic management for robotic fleets and self-driving vehicles. Thanks to this proprietary tech, robots do not rely on a central server and this allows for unprecedented levels of resilience and ease of management, which are the key aspects for mass adoption of robotics. In addition, she brings a decade of  experience in the industry, both as a technical contributor and as a leader. 

Quirino Zagarese has a Ph.D. in Software Engineering with a focus on service computing for ultra large scale systems and experience of more than a decade in professional software development and leadership. He launched several global products that are currently used by businesses like Lego, Sony PlayStation, Meta, Epic Games, and many others. 

About PHINXT

PHINXT Robotics (pronounced “fee-nixt”) enables warehouses of any size to deploy autonomous robots as needed, with no expertise required. Thanks to its patented decentralised edge computing technology, PHINXT ensures unprecedented levels of reliability whilst enabling ultra-simplified deployments that require minimal IT infrastructure costs. This will allow small- and medium-sized warehouses to adopt robotics more easily and compete with the larger logistics companies, and gives them the flexibility to scale up and down the number of robots as needed. In addition, PHINXT can provide interoperability between any type of robot to build out fully autonomous ecosystems. The startup was founded in April 2022 by Yanwen Chen, PhD, and Quirino Zagarese, PhD,  who are both experts in autonomous systems. Find out more at PHINXT.com. 

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