Sunrise Robotics, a startup focused on making industrial robots easier to deploy, has emerged from stealth mode after raising $8.5 million in seed funding. The company aims to address labor shortages in European manufacturing with modular robots powered by AI.
The funding round was led by London-based venture capital firm Plural, founded by high-profile entrepreneurs including Wise cofounder Taavet Hinrikus and Songkick cofounder Ian Hogarth. Other investors include Tapestry, Seedcamp, Tiny.vc, and Prototype Capital. Sunrise has not disclosed its post-funding valuation.
Sunrise Robotics builds modular, two-armed robotic systems designed to perform tasks like cutting, welding, fastening, and bolting—jobs traditionally done by human workers on factory floors. According to cofounder and CEO Tomaz Stolfa, the company is responding to a growing problem in Europe’s manufacturing sector, where a third of the current workforce is expected to retire within a decade. Many companies are already struggling to find younger workers to fill those roles.
Unlike traditional industrial robots, which can take up to eight months to install and program, Sunrise claims its robots can be operational on a new production line in under 10 weeks. The company uses cameras to scan a workstation and record how human workers perform tasks. It then creates a 3D digital model, or “digital twin,” of the workspace. AI models are trained using this simulation before the software is transferred to real robots.
Stolfa explained that the company combines small AI models with traditional software code to guide the robots. Over time, as robots learn new skills, deployment times for similar tasks should become shorter. Sunrise also designs its own robotic workstations, called “cells,” using mostly off-the-shelf components. This approach makes the systems cheaper and easier to maintain. “We’ve productized the hardware,” Stolfa said.
The startup is not aiming for large-scale manufacturers like carmakers. Instead, Sunrise is targeting smaller firms that produce a variety of parts in lower volumes—typically under 100,000 parts a year, though the system can handle up to 400,000. These smaller operations, often described as “high mix, low volume,” make up about 60% of Europe’s manufacturing sector.
So far, Sunrise has signed letters of intent with about 10 companies in industries such as supercar development, high-performance batteries, and consumer electronics. One early customer, Asteelflash, an electronics manufacturer based in Bedford, England, praised Sunrise’s speed and innovation. “Just a few months after initial data collection, we had a fully-trained, operational-intelligent robot up and running within hours of delivery,” said managing director Andrew Buss.
The company was founded by Tomaz Stolfa, Marko Thaler, and Joe Perrott—all with experience in Silicon Valley. Stolfa previously co-founded companies like vox.io and Layer. Thaler, now CTO, founded Airnamics, which developed AI for drones and robots. Perrott, the CCO, was formerly head of global program management at PCH International, which has worked with companies like Apple and Amazon.
Sunrise currently employs 25 people in Ljubljana and works across 12 locations in Europe. With the new funding, the company plans to grow its team and scale up production of its robot systems.
