KEWAZO raises a € 2.5 million further financial round and strengthens its management team

Garching b. München, GERMANY. KEWAZO, Munich construction robotics startup raises a € 2.5 million further financial round and strengthens its management team with high-caliber industry experts.

The financial round was led by MIG AG – one of the major German-based venture capital firms, which was also leading the Seed round investment last year. With the total amount of funding of € 3.6 million up to date, KEWAZO aims to obtain certification of the product and to release the first batch of the series product “Liftbot” to the market.

Alongside with experienced investors, KEWAZO is benefiting of two highly qualified members joining the team - Uwe Braun (formerly a managing director of Losberger GmbH) and Helmut Kreller (formerly the managing director of Wilhelm Layher GmbH & Co. KG), bringing many years of experience from the construction and scaffolding industries.

KEWAZO offers robotic material hoists for construction sites and industrial plants. The first area of application is scaffolding assembly. An intelligent robotic solution offers flexible, cost-efficient and safe transportation of scaffolding parts during scaffolding assembly. After a successful bauma trade show in April 2019, the company is currently piloting the system on job sites.

Dr. Helmut Kreller will support KEWAZO as the Chairman of the Board. For over 20 years Dr. Kreller was working as the managing director of Wilhelm Layher GmbH & Co. KG - one of the world's leading scaffold production companies with more than 1.400 Employees and global presence. He brings his valuable experience from the scaffolding industry in the topics of sales and marketing, product development, production and management. For many years he was a Chairman of the Working Group of Scaffolding Producers in the Federal Association for Scaffolding Assembly and member of the Expert Committee for Scaffolding at the German Institute for Construction Technology. Dr. Kreller has introduced multiple innovations in the scaffolding assembly sector. Dr. Kreller said: “I will be happy to support KEWAZO with my technical and industry-specific experience to advance digitization and automation in the industry. Scaffolding assembly services are in a state of change due to an increasing shortage of skilled workers and a permanent need for optimization. I am convinced that such innovative solutions as Liftbot, which significantly reduce costs of scaffolding assembly and at the same time increase safety, will change the industry in the long term.”

Uwe Braun is joining the company as a second Managing Director of KEWAZO. For more than 25 years, Mr. Braun built up corporate and sales structures. Previously, he was leading Losberger GmbH, helping the company to boost its sales and growth. After Losberger GmbH, Mr. Braun was active as an independent consultant supporting multiple companies in change management. Mr. Braun has rich experience in management, sales, logistics, operations and consulting. With his decades of industry experience and operational excellence, he will contribute to KEWAZO's success and support the company in developing its sales and maintenance structures. Uwe Braun said: “I am looking forward to investing all my energy, experience and enthusiasm in such a young and dynamic startup. I see an enormous automation potential for the traditionally labor-intensive scaffolding assembly with the Liftbot. It is an exciting and challenging task for me to accompany the highly motivated KEWAZO team into a promising future.“

KEWAZO CEO Artem Kuchukov stated: “We are very proud to have Dr. Helmut Kreller and Uwe Braun in our management team. With their decades of experience and operational knowledge in scaffolding and construction industries, we are all set for the upcoming challenges. The new investment will help us to reach our certification milestones and to ship the first systems already in this year. We are grateful for the strong support of our investors and their believe in us and in the power of construction automation.”

Matthias Guth, Venture Partner at MIG AG, said: “With the injection of fresh capital and the valuable support of Uwe Braun and Dr. Helmut Kreller, KEWAZO is now well positioned to bring sustainable changes in the industry with the market launch of its first certified robotic systems in 2020.”

About MIG

MIG is a leading German venture capital firm with more than $1 Billion assets under management. MIG invests in deep-tech and life-science companies with a focus on early-stage teams with global ambitions. The MIG Partners are all entrepreneurs, who actively support the development of portfolio companies. For additional information, visit www.mig.ag.

About KEWAZO

Munich-based robotics company KEWAZO automates logistics on construction sites. KEWAZO offers robotic material hoists for construction sites and industrial plants. In scaffolding, the robotic system allows to decrease labor costs and labor shortage by significantly increasing the efficiency of the scaffolding assembly process. The company works closely with large scaffolding companies and industrial service providers. For more information please go to www.kewazo.com

Photo: Simon Kratzer