sewts, a German tech startup that creates autonomous robots that handle textiles, has raised €7 million, over $7.6 million, to shape the future of robotics and automation in the textile industry. The company plans to use the Series A round to accelerate the rollout of its sewts.VELUM system.
sewts.VELUM, launched in 2022, is a robotic cell designed to help industrial laundries overcome challenging labor shortages and strengthen operating efficiencies. The system automatically picks crumpled, laundered towels and feeds them into folding machines to reduce manual workflow at a human-like speed.
This software combines commercially available robots, grippers, and cameras into one intelligent system. sewts.VELUM’s multi-camera system uses the Ensenso S10 3D camera and models from the uEye CP camera series.
sewts.VELUM can significantly increase laundries’ throughput and increase their profitability, even in uncertain staffing situations. The company also hopes to add more applications outside of textiles to the system in the future.
Emerald Technology Ventures led the round, and CNB Capital, EquityPitcher Ventures, and Nabtasco Technology Venture joined as new investors. The funding round also included participation from existing shareholders Bayern Kapital, APEXX Ventures, and HTGF.
“Physical AI will enable the automation of complex, laborious tasks which so far had to be done by humans,” Michal Natora, Investment Director at Emerald and lead investor, said. “We think that, through physical AI, freed-up human capital will be one of the biggest productivity drivers in the next decade. Our investment in sewts comes from the conviction that this company has the ingredients to become one of the leaders in physical AI. sewts entered the market by bringing industrial robots to commercial laundries for the first time, generating very strong market demand for its initial product sewts.VELUM.”
sewts’ long-term vision is to automate clothes production. In particular, the company is planning to automate the handling of returned clothes in e-commerce, and has created a prototype for this use case with the help of German Otto Group.
“Our long-term vision is a “moonshot” idea – to revolutionize the production of textiles,” Alexander Bley, co-founder at CEO at sewts, said. “To get there, we first dedicate ourselves to the most promising niche markets and then approach the big vision step by step.”
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