Smart Robotics, the Dutch specialist in AI‑driven pick‑and‑place cobots, closed a €10 million Series A round led by Rotterdamse Havendraken, Innovation Industries and the family office Ernij Next. The capital injection is being earmarked for an aggressive expansion into the Middle East and North Africa, where sovereign wealth funds and state‑backed logistics platforms are mobilising billions to modernise warehouse networks. By leveraging the sizeable €10 million pool, Smart Robotics intends to establish regional hubs in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, integrate its systems with emerging free‑zone logistics corridors and tap the growing e‑commerce and pharma distribution demand across GCC and Maghreb markets.
The timing coincides with a surge in venture capital activity targeting autonomous supply‑chain solutions in the MENA region. Investors such as the Public Investment Fund and Qatar Investment Authority have signalled a strategic shift toward AI‑enabled infrastructure, viewing robotic automation as a critical lever for diversifying non‑oil revenue streams. Smart Robotics’ proven record—over 120 deployments in 15 countries and a milestone of one billion successful picks—provides a compelling data‑rich proposition that aligns with sovereigns’ appetite for scalable, low‑risk technology assets capable of delivering measurable productivity gains.
At the core of the company’s value proposition is a proprietary AI stack that learns from extensive live‑operation datasets, delivering 99.5 % system uptime and handling up to 1,000 picks per hour across high‑SKU variability environments. This capability addresses a persistent bottleneck in the region’s fragmented warehousing landscape, where manual pick processes inflate labor costs and impede the rollout of omnichannel retail models. By deploying Smart Robotics’ platform for item picking, palletising and depalletising, MENA logistics operators can achieve a defensible operational edge, fostering a virtuous cycle of data‑driven optimisation and reduced total cost of ownership.
Strategically, the infusion of European venture capital into Smart Robotics underscores a broader trend of cross‑border tech financing aimed at shoring up regional supply‑chain resilience. The partnership not only accelerates the firm’s market entry but also signals to other venture houses that the MENA logistics arena is ripe for high‑impact AI investments. As sovereign entities continue to allocate capital toward digital infrastructure, the convergence of Smart Robotics’ AI‑powered cobots with emerging MENA logistics ecosystems is set to redefine the economics of intralogistics across the region.
