Croatia's Gideon Brothers raises $31M for its 3D vision-enabled autonomous warehouse robots – TechCrunch

Proving that Central and Eastern Europe remains a powerhouse of hardware engineering matched with software, Gideon Brothers (GB), a Zagreb, Croatia-based robotics and AI startup, has raised a $31 million Series A round led by Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT), the venture and growth arm of Koch Industries Inc., with participation from DB Schenker, Prologis Ventures and Rite-Hite. The round also includes participation from several of Gideon Brothers' existing backers: Taavet Hinrikus (co-founder of TransferWise), Pentland Ventures, Peaksjah, HCVC (Hardware Club), Ivan Topčić, Nenad Bakić and Luca Ascani. The investment will be used to accelerate the development and commercialization of GB's AI and 3D vision-based "autonomous mobile robots" or "AMRs". These perform simple tasks such as transporting, picking up and dropping off products in order to free up humans to perform more valuable tasks. The company will also expand its operations in the EU and U.S. by opening offices in Munich, Germany and Boston, Massachusetts, respectively.