NEWS n 5 UK start-up raises £4m for ‘first universal robotics software’ A UK ROBOTICS START-UP has raised £4m of seed funding to boost its technology which, it claims, for the rst time allows software developers to program any make of robot using the operating system and programming language of their choice. Users can also port applications between dierent makes of robots, and manage and orchestrate eets of robots. The new money will accelerate development of the product and will help Sheeld-based BOW to scale its platform to meet growing demand from OEMs, developers and systems integrators. By removing the need for specialised robotics programmers, BOW says that its platform allows generalist software developers to create, manage and deploy complex robotics applications. It also opens up applications in sectors that have previously been underserved by robots. In addition, robots running the BOW SDK (software development kit) are said to benet from ultra-fast communications. BOW – Bettering our Worlds – spun out from the University of Sheeld in 2020. It is now working with OEMs, SIs and software developers, who are using the SDK to accelerate robotics innovation and use cases. “This investment is a dening moment for BOW,” says its co-founder and chief technology ocer, Daniel Camilleri. “It not only validates our vision, but also underscores the growing demand for crossplatform compatibility in robotics software. By simplifying robotics programming, we’re opening the door for all developers – not just roboticists – to shape the future of robotics. With BOW software, we’re enabling the ‘there’s an app for that’ revolution within the robotics industry.” “The robotics market is growing fast, but that growth would be exponentially higher if the tremendous cost and complexity of programming robots were reduced,” adds BOW co-founder and CEO, Nick Thompson. “Robotics has an almost unlimited potential to help humanity solve global challenges, but the world simply can’t aord to wait for robotics www.drivesncontrols.com March 2025 A BRITISH DEVELOPER OF high-eciency gallium nitride power electronic devices, Cambridge GaN Devices (CGD), has raised $32m in Series C funding which it will use to expand its operations in Cambridge, North America, Taiwan and Europe. The company’s founder and CEO, Dr Giorgia Longobardi describes the funding as “a pivotal moment” for CGD. “It validates our technology and vision to revolutionise the power electronics industry with our ecient GaN solutions and make sustainable power electronics possible. We're now poised to accelerate our growth and make a signicant impact in reducing energy consumption across multiple sectors.” GaN-based devices oer faster switching speeds, lower energy consumption, and more compact designs than silicon devices. CGD’s proprietary technology simplies the implementation of GaN and delivers eciency levels of more than 99%, leading to energy savings of up to 50% in high-power applications such as motor drives, electric vehicles and data centre power supplies. The global GaN power device market is growing at a CAGR of 41% and could be worth more than $10bn by 2029. The technology is a rival to silicon carbide (SiC), oering a combination of high eciency, miniaturisation and built-in smart functions. “I'm thrilled to see this funding helping to deliver on customer deals we’ve already closed for CGD's latest-generation P2 products,” says the company’s senior vice-president of sales, Henryk Dabrowski. “This investment will signicantly boost our ability to meet the growing demand for our reliable and easy-to-use GaN solutions.” CGD was spun out from Cambridge University by Dr Longobardi and Professor Florin Udrea in 2016. It aims to shape the future of power electronics by delivering the most ecient and reliable devices. It says they will lead to “a radical step change” in eciency. UK GaN pioneer secures $32m of funding to drive global growth to standardise around a single OS and coding language. “BOW’s universal software platform and SDK elegantly solve this intractable problem by enabling any software developer to program various types of robots using the coding language of their choice, make portable applications and enable easy interoperability between any make and model of robot,” he continues. “This £4m seed investment, led by Northern Gritstone, will be used to build on our strong commercial traction to date, expand our brilliant team, and accelerate our product development so we can unleash the full potential of robotics.” The closure of the seed funding round follows the appointment of Raspberry Pi co-founder, Liz Upton to chair BOW’s board. Thompson and Upton are hoping to do for robotics what Raspberry Pi did for computing – make it accessible to millions, rather than the few. The robotics industry is facing a critical bottleneck – a global shortage of roboticists, reckoned to amount to around 150,000 specialists worldwide. This shortage risks stalling growth in the sector, which has been projected to reach a value of $260bn by 2030. BOW’s SDK would allow the estimated 28 million general software developers around the world to apply their skills to robot programming. The funding round was led by the science and technology investor Northern Gritstone. Other investors include Finance Yorkshire and Praetura Ventures (part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II). https://usebow.com Hoping to be the Raspberry Pi of robotics: BOW CEO, Nick Thompson, and CTO, Daniel Camilleri
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