BGV Trident Capital, founded by Illia Ponomarev and Hennadiy Butkevych (the co-owner of ATB supermarkets chain), has invested $5 million in the robot manufacturing start-up Deus Robots, created by Pavlo Pikulin in 2018.

According to the press release of Deus Robots, the attracted investments will be used to organise the serial production of robots for warehouse logistics, as well as to expand the number of developers in Ukraine and the company’s entry into international markets.

It is planned that by the end of 2022 serial production will begin with a volume of about 400 robots per month. These robots will be used to automate logistics processes. Until now, as noted, Deus Robots has developed with the personal investment of its founders.

Thus, Pavlo Pikulin has already invested over $1 million of his own funds in the development of the project. In 2021, Deus Robots produced and delivered 40 robots to customers.

“In any warehouse there are a number of tasks that are solved by people: sorting, order picking and transportation of goods. We develop robotic solutions for these tasks. At the moment we have three robots: for sorting goods and parcels, for transporting racks and for pallet transportation. Next year there will be three new models of robots that will solve other problems, for example, they will be able to pick up goods from shelves and racks,” Pikulin is quoted as saying.

Pavlo Pikulin, founder of Deus Robots

According to him, the robotics market is a promising area for investment. Deus Robots already has orders for the supply of 400+ robots in 2022-2023.

“One of our robots can work approximately 18 hours a day. This exceeds the working day of a loader or warehouse manager, whose working day lasts eight hours. And add weekends, vacations, hospital and other administrative costs associated with hiring people (training, transportation costs and others),” he explained.

The release also notes that the development of robotics in Ukraine is facilitated by partnership with Poshta. DEUS Robots units are already being tested in the supply chain in the processes of sorting and moving goods of Nova Poshta.

Deus Robots, a robotic company engaged in the development, production and sale of high-tech logistics equipment, was founded in Kyiv in 2018. It specializes in the development and production of technologies for autonomous mobile robots (AMR).