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stow Group, a Belgium-based provider of industrial storage solutions, acquired a majority stake in Raiser Robotics, a German-startup that develops automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS). Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.

With the acquisition, stow created a new business unit dedicated to warehouse automation called stow Robotics. stow Robotics will regroup all existing warehouse automation solutions for both pallets and bins, such as the stow Atlas 2D pallet shuttles, and the related services and teams. The current development pipeline of warehouse automation solutions and software shall also be part of the new unit.

stow Robotics will be led by stow Group’s chief technology officer Detlef Ganz. stow Group has about 1,750 employees, an office in Naperville, Ill. and nine production facilities across Europe.

Raiser Robotics’ e.scala 3D, modular ASRS system, which can pick bins and boxes, is scheduled to launch in the fourth quarter of 2021. Raiser Robotics will be led by Rainer Buchmann and his expert team and rebranded to stow Robotics GmbH. The company was founded in 2019.

“The launch of stow Robotics is a strategic milestone for our business and will create substantial synergies across our warehouse automation portfolio,” said Jos De Vuyst, CEO of stow Group. “We are thrilled to welcome the Raiser Robotics team to stow Group, and look forward to their extensive industry experience and expertise enhancing stow Robotics.”

“We’re delighted to join forces with stow Group, a global leader in industrial storage solutions,” said Rainer Buchmann, co-founder of Raiser Robotics. “This is the right partnership to achieve swift market penetration of e.scala across Europe and North America, and we are proud to have our team contribute to shaping the future of stow Robotics.”

In other ASRS-related news, there are multiple patent infringement lawsuits happening at press time. Attabotics is alleging that Urbx is violating multiple patents and is seeking a permanent injunction and damages. AutoStore and Ocado have involved in a legal battle since October 2020 over a series of patent infringement disputes. AutoStore is arguing that its system is the foundation of the technology used by Ocado. AutoStore, which recently sold a 40% stake to Softbank for $2.5 billion, is attempting to block Ocado’s expansion into the U.S. and other locations.