STIHL Acquires Around 24% of Line-Marking Robot Maker TinyMobileRobots
The German industrial group STIHL invested significant funds in Danish robotics company TinyMobileRobots. For 90 years, STIHL has held the position of the world's leading chainsaw manufacturer. In addition, STIHL also produces a wide range of power tools, forestry equipment and robotic lawn mowers.
STIHL's robotic lawn mowers have strong technical similarities with the fully autonomous line-marking robots made by TinyMobileRobots, which are designed for use on sports fields, in road construction and in agriculture.
TinyMobileRobots is rapidly expanding into international markets from Denmark. The company is profitable and has doubled in size each of the last two years. The STIHL group is closely watching TinyMobileRobots' rapid growth and is taking this opportunity to acquire 23.8% of the company by buying out a former state investment managed by venture firm Borean Innovation.
Private investor Anders Fauerskov and former co-owner of TC Group will continue to hold part of the company and will remain an important equity partner in the new ownership circle. STIHL did not inject any additional cash into TinyMobileRobots, but the new relationship brings other benefits.
“We were looking for a strong partner capable of supporting further growth and development, and a partnership with STIHL is an absolute dream scenario. Together we share knowledge, experience and skills that will greatly benefit both companies. From the start, we will also benefit from STIHL's worldwide dealer network. While keeping our status as an independent company, we can draw on STIHL's vast market experience to further accelerate our growth. To put it mildly, I am very, very pleased with this new development”
In just five years, TinyMobileRobots has found a strong market for its line-marking robots, designed both for marking sports fields and for use in road construction.
“We have been in talks with STIHL for a couple of years. Finally, the opportunity arose to let STIHL buy a part of the company. This allows us to coordinate many activities in both development and markets, which means our expectations of 100% annual growth are now much more grounded. STIHL is well known in the market and recognized as a quality product, and we are a startup that is constantly improving our quality. We can learn a lot from STIHL, and STIHL can learn a lot from us. STIHL has taken the concept of quality to the extreme, which (also) means they have long development periods. They were impressed by how quickly we can go to market and how quickly we can adapt our technology”
Before investing in TinyMobileRobots, STIHL Digital had invested in only a few companies, mainly in forestry, landscape architecture, construction, agriculture and lawn care.
STIHL continues to expand its presence in the US market, and this partnership offers great potential and synergy for the two companies working together. TinyMobileRobots' line-marking robots meet customers' high demand for more environmentally friendly products, since they run on batteries rather than gas and use significantly less line paint than competing solutions.
“We have worked closely with TinyMobileRobots for more than two years, and we have been increasingly impressed by their growth rate and performance. When the opportunity arose to acquire nearly a quarter of the company, we quickly closed the deal. We are convinced that our future joint efforts will lead to an even larger share of TinyMobileRobots in a fast-growing and innovation-driven market”
TinyMobileRobots is constantly improving its robot technology. They are widely used by sports clubs, municipalities and airports, and increasingly by construction and engineering companies.
The company has also developed a PropTech robot for measuring large indoor areas, such as high-rise construction sites, warehouses, storage facilities and production halls, where millions of square meters must otherwise be measured by hand. Using TinyMobileRobots, these labor-intensive tasks can be significantly streamlined.
An experienced groundskeeper would need about five hours to mark the lines of a newly created football pitch. A line-marking robot from TinyMobileRobots can do the same job in just 20 minutes. This is one of many reasons why the market for these robots is growing rapidly. Around the world, sports clubs, park owners, schools and universities are realizing what this robotics can do for them. Once their sports fields have been measured and saved on an iPad, marking or tracking them is as simple as pressing a button.
Throughout the season, when grass is cut frequently, municipalities and sports clubs can save considerable time by using the robot. That time is better spent repairing damage or improving grass quality. To date, TinyLineMarkers from TinyMobileRobots have marked nearly 800,000 sports fields worldwide, saving three to four hours of work on the initial marking of each field.
The STIHL group develops, manufactures and sells power tools for professional forestry and agriculture, as well as for garden and landscape care. The product range is complemented by digital solutions and services.
Products are distributed through authorized dealers and STIHL's own online stores, which will be expanded internationally in the coming years, including 41 sales and marketing subsidiaries, about 120 importers and more than 54 000 service dealers in over 160 countries. STIHL manufactures products at its own plants in seven countries: Germany, the USA, Brazil, Switzerland, Austria, China and the Philippines.
